Lumped

The past tense of the verb 'lump,' meaning to group or categorize things together, often without careful consideration of their differences. It implies a lack of differentiation or a broad, generalized treatment. It can also suggest the act of assigning someone or something to a particular category, sometimes unfairly or without due process. The implication often exists that the individuals or things being lumped are similar but not exactly the same. This can lead to oversimplification and potentially incorrect assumptions or conclusions.

Lumped meaning with examples

• The accountant, faced with a mountain of receipts, simply lumped all the travel expenses together, ignoring the individual details of each trip. This simplified the process, but it made it difficult to identify any specific anomalies. The method overlooked significant variations in transportation costs, accommodation, and per diem allowances.
• Critics argued that the new law unfairly lumped together peaceful protestors and violent rioters, treating them as a single threat. The conflation of disparate groups undermined the rights of individuals and failed to make adequate distinctions between different kinds of actions and intentions. They felt it unfairly punished many people.
• The researcher decided to *lump* all participants with similar backgrounds into one category for the initial data analysis. This initial categorization, despite creating broad groups, could be refined later. Doing this allowed for faster analysis, but he knew that this would mean masking potential variations within those large groups.
• Faced with a difficult client, the consultant lumped his problems with another client's issues to make one presentation. He thought doing this would allow for more time to focus on sales pitches, but it made the presentation incoherent, losing the trust of both the audience and the two clients.