col·lec·tion / kəˈlekshən/ • n. 1. the action or process of collecting someone or something. ∎  a regular removal of mail for dispatch or of trash for disposal. ∎  an instance of collecting money in a church service or for a charitable cause: they took up a collection for her burial. ∎  a sum collected in this way.2. a group of things or people: a rambling collection of houses. ∎  an assembly of items such as works of art, pieces of writing, or natural objects, esp. one systematically ordered: paintings from the permanent collection. ∎  (collections) an art museum's holdings organized by medium, such as sculpture, painting, or photography. ∎  a book or recording containing various texts, poems, songs, etc.: a collection of essays. ∎  a range of new clothes produced by a fashion house: a preview of their autumn collection.

Collection

a gathering of objects or of persons, as works of art, literary materials, etc.; a quantity of anything collected together into a mass; an assemblage. See also accumulation.

Examples: collection of literary material, 1460; of floating vapours, 1747; of waters, 1697; of works of art, 1651.