diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 62bf4e3fd..7a2f0e233 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -37,10 +37,11 @@ jobs:
       xcode: "11.2.1"
     steps:
       - checkout
-      - run: HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1 brew install wget autoconf automake libtool pkg-config ragel freetype glib cairo icu4c graphite2
+      - run: HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1 brew install wget autoconf automake libtool pkg-config ragel freetype glib cairo icu4c graphite2 meson
       - run: export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/usr/local/opt/icu4c/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/libffi/lib/pkgconfig" && ./autogen.sh --with-freetype --with-glib --with-gobject --with-cairo --with-icu --with-coretext --with-graphite2
       - run: make -j4
       - run: make check || .ci/fail.sh
+      - run: make clean && meson build -Damalgam=true && ninja -Cbuild test
 
   distcheck:
     docker:
@@ -225,7 +226,9 @@ jobs:
       - checkout
       - run: apt update && apt install -y ninja-build binutils meson gcc g++ pkg-config ragel gtk-doc-tools libfreetype6-dev libglib2.0-dev libcairo2-dev libicu-dev libgraphite2-dev python python-pip
       - run: pip install fonttools
-      - run: meson build && ninja -Cbuild test
+      - run: meson build && ninja -Cbuild test && rm -rf build
+      # test amalgam build
+      - run: meson build -Damalgam=true && ninja -Cbuild && rm -rf build
 
   crosscompile-notest-djgpp:
     docker:
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 1e0a3a843..e27ee30de 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -25,3 +25,6 @@ option('tests', type : 'feature', value : 'auto', yield : true,
   description: 'Enable or disable unit tests')
 option('introspection', type : 'feature', value : 'disabled', yield : true,
   description : 'Generate gobject-introspection bindings (.gir/.typelib files)')
+
+option('amalgam', type : 'boolean', value : false,
+  description : 'Enable amalgam builds')
diff --git a/src/meson.build b/src/meson.build
index 315b781e6..63bcf182d 100644
--- a/src/meson.build
+++ b/src/meson.build
@@ -200,6 +200,11 @@ if conf.get('HAVE_CORETEXT', 0) == 1
   hb_headers += ['hb-coretext.h']
 endif
 
+if get_option('amalgam')
+  # replace the array if is amalgam build
+  hb_sources = ['harfbuzz.cc']
+endif
+
 # harfbuzz
 gen_def = find_program('gen-def.py')
 harfbuzz_def = custom_target('harfbuzz.def',