coalesced

Coalesced is the past participle of coalesce, a verb meaning to come together to form a single entity. It derives from Latin coalescere, meaning to grow together. In everyday use, coalesced describes disparate parts or ideas that have merged or united, such as separate streams that coalesced into one river, or multiple opinions that have become a single consensus.

In science, coalescence refers to the process of merging small units into larger ones. In physics and chemistry, droplets, bubbles, and grains in emulsions may coalesce when they collide and fuse, affecting the properties of the system. In meteorology, raindrops coalesce as small drops collide in clouds to form larger drops. In astronomy, dust and gas in galactic environments can coalesce to form structures such as stars or protogalaxies.

In computing and information technology, coalescing describes combining multiple events or data items into a single operation to reduce overhead. Examples include coalesced interrupts, where several interrupt signals are bundled for handling as one, and coalesced network packets, where adjacent packets are merged to improve throughput. Likewise, memory allocators may coalesce free blocks to reduce fragmentation.

See also coalescence, the noun describing the process itself.