association (n.)

  1. a formal organization of people or groups of people; he joined the Modern Language Association'

  2. the act of consorting with or joining with others; you cannot be convicted of criminal guilt by association'

  3. the state of being connected together as in memory or imagination; his association of his father with being beaten was too strong to break'

  4. the process of bringing ideas or events together in memory or imagination; conditioning is a form of learning by association

    [ Syn: connection , connexion ]

  5. a social or business relationship; a valuable financial affiliation; he was sorry he had to sever his ties with other members of the team; many close associations with England

    [ Syn: affiliation , tie , tie-up ]

  6. a relation resulting from interaction or dependence; flints were found in association with the prehistoric remains of the bear; the host is not always injured by association with a parasite'

  7. (chemistry) any process of combination (especially in solution) that depends on relatively weak chemical bonding

  8. (ecology) a group of organisms (plants and animals) that live together in a certain geographical region and constitute a community with a few dominant species

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
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