merged

1. 1
   verb

   Past tense and past participle of merge.

   The two companies merged last year to cut their operating costs.

   The rivers merged just below the waterfall and widened into a single channel.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty as simple past and past participle. Because merge works both transitively and intransitively, the participle builds two different constructions. The perfect with have fits things that combine on their own (the rivers have merged). The passive with be fits things someone combines (the two files were merged). The gradual-blending meaning pairs naturally with into: the hills merged into the evening sky.

   By noon the two lanes of traffic had merged.

   The customer lists were merged before the launch.

2. 2
   adjective

   Joined together into a single unit through the act of merging.

   The merged entity faced new regulatory scrutiny within months.

   The merged dataset contained records drawn from both original sources.

   Similarcombined, consolidated, unified, amalgamated

   Oppositeseparate

   Note

   The participle turned adjective, most at home before a noun: a merged entity, a merged dataset, a merged account. It does not grade, so nothing is more merged or very merged than something else. After a verb the boundary with the past participle blurs. In the firms were merged, the reader cannot always tell a state from an action.

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