Combine: Putting Things Together, and a Machine That Does Three Jobs
To combine is to join things so they work as one. The noun names a harvesting machine, so called because it combines reaping, threshing and winnowing.
Combine means to bring together into a single thing. The stress moves depending on the job: as a verb it is com-BINE, and as the noun for the harvester it is COM-bine, one of dozens of English pairs that work this way.
- To join or mix. *Combine the dry ingredients.*
- To do two things at once. *She combines work and study.*
- A harvesting machine (noun). *The combine moved across the field.*
- A group acting together. *An industrial combine.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | combine | Combine them gently. |
| Noun | combination | A combination of factors. |
| Adjective | combined | Combined effort. |
| Noun (machine) | combine harvester | A new combine harvester. |
| Adjective | combinable | The two are not combinable. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Combine the flour and butter with your fingertips.Recipe English — combine is gentler than mix.
- Their combined weight broke the branch.Combined as an adjective before a noun.
- The combine harvests, threshes and cleans in one pass.Which is exactly why it is called a combine.
Stress that changes the word
- com-BINE (verb) / COM-bine (machine)
- re-CORD (verb) / REC-ord (noun)
- pre-SENT (verb) / PRES-ent (noun)
- con-TRACT (verb) / CON-tract (noun)
- English usually stresses the first syllable of the noun and the second of the verb
From Late Latin *combinare*, to join two together, from *com* (with) and *bini* (two by two). The machine sense is American and dates from the 1850s, when the three separate harvest jobs were first done by one device.
Combine or mix?
Combine suggests the parts keep working together; mix suggests they merge. Recipes use combine for a gentle join and mix for vigorous blending.
Combine with or combine and?
Both. *Combine A with B* focuses on adding one to the other; *combine A and B* treats them equally.