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1. A collection of objects laid on top of each other
   - heap, mound, agglomerate, cumulation, cumulus
    
2. [informal] (often followed by 'of') a large number, amount or extent
   "a pile of letters";
   - batch, deal, flock, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mickle [archaic], mint, mountain, muckle, passel [US], peck, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, stack, tidy sum, wad, bunch [informal]
    
3. [informal] A large sum of money (especially as pay or profit)
   "she made a pile selling real estate";
   - bundle [informal], big bucks [informal], megabucks [informal], big money [informal], bomb [Brit, informal]
    
4. Fine soft dense hair (as the fine short hair of cattle or deer or the wool of sheep or the undercoat of certain dogs)
   - down
    
5. Battery consisting of voltaic cells arranged in series; the earliest electric battery devised by Volta
   - voltaic pile, galvanic pile
    
6. A column of wood, steel or concrete that is driven into the ground to provide support for a structure
   - spile, piling, stilt
    
7. The yarn (as in a rug, velvet or corduroy) that stands up from the weave
   "for uniform colour and texture tailors cut velvet with the pile running the same direction";
   - nap
    
8. A nuclear reactor that uses controlled nuclear fission to generate energy
   - atomic pile, atomic reactor, chain reactor

1. Arrange in stacks
   "pile your books up on the shelves";
   - stack, heap
    
2. Press tightly together or cram
   - throng, mob, pack, jam
    
3. Place or lay as if in a pile
   "The teacher piled work on the students until the parents protested"

Derived forms: piling, piles, piled

See also: stack up, stacked

Type of: accumulation, aggregation, arrange, assemblage, battery, collection, column, crowd, crowd together, electric battery, hair, large indefinite amount, large indefinite quantity, lay, money, nuclear reactor, pillar, place, pose, position, put, reactor, set, set up, thread, yarn

Encyclopedia: Pile, Richard