collection

noun10

1. •
   a set of things that someone has found or bought over time and keeps or shows together

   • The attic contains a remarkable collection of antiques, oddities, and random junk.
   • The asteroid belt consists of a collection of dust, rubble, and minor planets.
2. •
   A set of pitch classes used by a composer.

   • The "collectional information" one receives is ambiguous since the collection { C, E, F, G, A } occurs in the key of C and in the key of F. — 2005
3. •
   A set of sets; used because such a thing is in general too large to comply with the formal definition of a set.
4. •
   The activity of collecting.

   • Collection of trash will occur every Thursday.
5. •
   A gathering of money for charitable or other purposes, as by passing a contribution box for donations.

   • The people here are very good to each other, too. When someone's house burned down, when someone was in the hospital, they took up collections for the people. — 1976
6. •
   Debt collection.
7. •
   The quality of being collected; calm composure.
8. •
   (UK) The jurisdiction of a collector of excise.
9. •
   [usually plural] A set of college exams generally taken at the start of the term.
10. •
    (no longer used) The act of inferring or concluding from premises or observed facts; also, that which is inferred.

    • We may safely say thus, that wrong collections have been hitherto made out of those words by modern divines. — 1643