1. The act of consorting with or joining with others
   "you cannot be convicted of criminal guilt by association"
    
2. A formal organization of people or groups of people
   "he joined the Modern Language Association"
    
3. A social or business relationship
   "many close associations with England";
   - affiliation, tie, tie-up
    
4. 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"
    
5. The state of being connected together as in memory or imagination
   "his association of his father with being beaten was too strong to break"
    
6. The process of bringing ideas or events together in memory or imagination
   "conditioning is a form of learning by association";
   - connection, connexion [Brit]
    
7. (chemistry) any process of combination (especially in solution) that depends on relatively weak chemical bonding
   "The association of water molecules through hydrogen bonding gives water its unique properties"
    
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 coral reef association included a diverse array of fish, mollusks, and crustaceans"

Derived forms: associations

Type of: chemical action, chemical change, chemical process, group, grouping, memory, org [informal], organisation [Brit], organization, relation, relationship, remembering, social activity, unification, union

Antonym: disassociation

Encyclopedia: Association