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Assemblage vs Assembly

Assemblage and Assembly are not always interchangeable in concrete use.

Assemblage may be used freely in reference either to persons or to things.

  • an assemblage of farmers from every section of the state
  • an assemblage of the city’s manufactured products for exhibition

It may imply a unit that is a collection of individuals of the same general kind or one that is a whole formed by the union of miscellaneous things.

  • an assemblage of logs
  • an automobile is an assemblage of various distinct parts

It may be applied to something that can be seen as a unit or whole or that can be conceived as such.

  • we have just been picturing nature as an assemblage of particles set in a framework of space and time
    Jeans

Assembly, on the other hand, was until recently restricted in its application to a group of persons who gather together in a given place usually for the purpose of acting as a unit or of social enjoyment or, in a more specific sense, in order to serve as a deliberative or legislative body.

  • the mayor decided to call an assembly of the citizens
  • the New York State Assembly

There is a tendency to use assembly instead of assemblage of a structure or machine and especially of part of a machine that is formed by the union of different parts.

  • a hub assembly