association (
http://definr.com/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: 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]
5: the process of bringing ideas or events together in memory
or imagination; "conditioning is a form of learning by
association" [syn:
connection,
connexion]
6: a relation resulting from interaction or dependence; "the
host is not always injured by association with a parasite"
7: any process of combination (in solution) that depend 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