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Webster 1913 Edition


Association

As-soˊci-a′tion

(?; 277)
,
Noun.
[Cf. F.
association
, LL.
associatio
, fr. L.
associare
.]
1.
The act of associating, or state of being associated; union; connection, whether of persons of things.
“Some . . . bond of association.”
Hooker.
Self-denial is a kind of holy
association
with God.
Boyle.
2.
Mental connection, or that which is mentally linked or associated with a thing.
Words . . . must owe their powers
association
.
Johnson.
Why should . . . the holiest words, with all their venerable
associations
, be profaned?
Coleridge.
3.
Union of persons in a company or society for some particular purpose;
as, the American
Association
for the Advancement of Science; a benevolent
association
. Specifically, as among the Congregationalists, a society, consisting of a number of ministers, generally the pastors of neighboring churches, united for promoting the interests of religion and the harmony of the churches.
Association of ideas
(Physiol.)
,
the combination or connection of states of mind or their objects with one another, as the result of which one is said to be revived or represented by means of the other. The relations according to which they are thus connected or revived are called the law of association. Prominent among them are reckoned the relations of time and place, and of cause and effect.
Porter.

Webster 1828 Edition


Association

ASSOCIA'TION

,
Noun.
1.
The act of associating; union; connection of persons.
2.
Union of persons in a company; a society formed for transacting or carrying on some business for mutual advantage; a partnership. It is often applied to a union of states or a confederacy.
3.
Union of things; apposition, as of particles of matter.
4.
Union or connection of ideas. An association of ideas is where two or more ideas constantly or naturally follow each other in the mind, so that one almost infallibly produces the other.
5.
An exertion or change of some extreme part of the sensory residing in the muscles or organs of sense, in consequence of some antecedent or attendant fibrous contractions.
6.
In ecclesiastical affairs, a society of the clergy, consisting of a number of pastors of neighboring churches, united for promoting the interests of religion and the harmony of the churches.

Definition 2024


association

association

English

Noun

association (plural associations)

  1. The act of associating.
  2. The state of being associated; a connection to or an affiliation with something.
    • 2012 March-April, Jan Sapp, “Race Finished”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 164:
      Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?
  3. (statistics) Any relationship between two measured quantities that renders them statistically dependent (but not necessarily causal or a correlation).
  4. A group of persons associated for a common purpose; an organization; society.
  5. (object-oriented programming) Relationship between classes of objects that allows one object instance to cause another to perform an action on its behalf.

Derived terms

  • guilt by association

Related terms

Translations


French

Etymology

From associer.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /a.sɔ.sja.sjɔ̃/

Noun

association f (plural associations)

  1. association, society, group
  2. (commercial, economic) partnership
  3. association (of related terms, ideas etc.), combination
  4. (object-oriented programming) association