association

noun

1. (uncountable)The act of associating.

   “And it is a characteristic of man that he alone has any sense of good and evil, of just and unjust, and the like, and the association of living beings who have this sense makes a family and a state.”

2. (countable)The state of being associated; a connection to or an affiliation with something.

   “"Well," exclaimed Lady Marchmont, breathing the perfume with which a honeysuckle, wound around an old ash, filled the air, "I do confess that I like common flowers better than any. The hothouse plant has no associations."”

   “Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?”

3. (countable, uncountable)Any relationship between two measured quantities that renders them statistically dependent (but not necessarily causal or a correlation).
4. (countable, uncountable)A group of persons associated for a common purpose; an organization; society.
5. (countable, uncountable)Relationship between classes of objects that allows one object instance to cause another to perform an action on its behalf.
6. (Philippines, countable, uncountable)A benevolent overseas Chinese organization of popular origin for overseas Chinese individuals with the same surname, geographical origin, location, trade or business.