1. (n.) The act of associating, or state of being associated; union; connection, whether of persons of things.
2. (n.) Mental connection, or that which is mentally linked or associated with a thing.
3. (n.) 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.
Thesaurus Entries
Anschluss, British Cabinet, Sanhedrin, US Cabinet, accompaniment, accord, accordance, addition, adjunct, advisory body, affairs, affiliation, affinity, agglomeration, aggregation, agreement, alignment, alliance, amalgamation, approximation, assemblage, assembly, assimilation, association by contiguity, association of ideas, bench, blend, blending, board, body of advisers, bond, bonding, borough council, brain trust, cabal, cabinet, cahoots, camaraderie, camarilla, cartel, centralization, chain of thought, chamber, city council, clang association, closeness, co-working, coaction, coadunation, coalescence, coalition, cochairmanship, coincidence, collaboration, colleagueship, collectivity, collegialism, collegiality, collusion, combination, combine, combined effort, combo, common council, community, companionship, company, complicity, composition, comradeship, concert, concerted action, concomitance, concordance, concourse, concurrence, condominium, confederacy, confederation, conference, confluence, confraternity, congeries, conglomeration, congress, conjugation, conjunction, connectedness, connection, consilience, consociation, consolidation, consortium, consortship, conspiracy, consultative assembly, contiguity, contrariety, contribution, controlled association, cooperation, cooperative, copartnership, copartnery, correspondence, cotenancy, council, council fire, council of ministers, council of state, council of war, county council, court, current of thought, dealings, deduction, deliberative assembly, diet, directory, disjunction, divan, ecumenism, embodiment, encompassment, engagement, enosis, federalization, federation, fellowship, filiation, flow of thought, fraternalism, fraternity, fraternization, free association, freemasonry, friendship, fusion, group, guild, having a part, homology, hookup, identification, inclusion, incorporation, inmost thoughts, integration, intercourse, intimacy, involvement, joining, joint chairmanship, joint control, joint ownership, joint tenancy, junction, junta, kitchen cabinet, league, legislature, liaison, link, linkage, linking, marriage, meld, melding, membership, mental linking, merger, mutual attraction, nearness, negative transference, organization, package, package deal, pairing, parasitism, parish council, partaking, participation, partnership, positive transference, privy council, propinquity, proximity, rapport, relatedness, relation, relations, relationship, saprophytism, secret thoughts, sharing, similarity, simultaneity, social circle, social class, society, sodality, solidification, sorority, soviet, staff, stream of consciousness, suffrage, symbiosis, sympathy, synchronism, syncretism, syndicate, syndication, syneresis, synergy, synesthesia, synod, synthesis, thoughts, tie, tie-in, tie-up, train of thought, transference, tribunal, unification, union, united action, voting, wedding
