as·so·ci·a·tion  ( ə-s ō′s ē- āsh ən, -sh ē-)
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n.1. The act of associating or being connected with: My parents disapproved of my association with my friends from across town. 2. An organized body of people who have an interest, activity, or purpose in common; a society. 3. a. A mental connection or relation between thoughts, feelings, ideas, or sensations: My therapist helped me examine my association of food with comfort. b. The act of expressing a link or connection between two things: "The media's association of visa overstayers with illegality is so strong and common as to shape public attitudes towards them" (Junya Morooka). 4. A correlation or causal connection: There is a definite association of exercise with improved health. 5. Chemistry Any of various processes of combination, such as hydration, solvation, or complex-ion formation, depending on relatively weak chemical bonding. 6. Ecology A large number of organisms in a specific geographic area constituting a community with one or two dominant species.
as·so′ci·ation·al adj. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices
Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:
Indo-European Roots
Semitic Roots
The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.
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