Association vs. Union

The act of associating.

The state of being associated; a connection to or an affiliation with something.

(statistics) Any relationship between two measured quantities that renders them statistically dependent (but not necessarily causal or a correlation).

A group of persons associated for a common purpose; an organization; society.

(object-oriented programming) Relationship between classes of objects that allows one object instance to cause another to perform an action on its behalf.

The act of associating, or state of being associated; union; connection, whether of persons of things.

Example: ‘Self-denial is a kind of holy association with God.’;

Mental connection, or that which is mentally linked or associated with a thing.

Example: ‘Words . . . must owe their powers association.’; ‘Why should . . . the holiest words, with all their venerable associations, be profaned?’;

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.

a formal organization of people or groups of people;

Example: ‘he joined the Modern Language Association’;

the act of consorting with or joining with others;

Example: ‘you cannot be convicted of criminal guilt by association’;

the state of being connected together as in memory or imagination;

Example: ‘his association of his father with being beaten was too strong to break’;

a social or business relationship;

Example: ‘a valuable financial affiliation’; ‘he was sorry he had to sever his ties with other members of the team’; ‘many close associations with England’;

the process of bringing ideas or events together in memory or imagination;

Example: ‘conditioning is a form of learning by association’;

a relation resulting from interaction or dependence;

Example: ‘flints were found in association with the prehistoric remains of the bear’; ‘the host is not always injured by association with a parasite’;

(chemistry) any process of combination (especially in solution) that depends on relatively weak chemical bonding

(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

(countable) The act of uniting or joining two or more things into one.

(uncountable) The state of being united or joined.

(countable) That which is united, or made one; something formed by a combination or coalition of parts or members; a confederation; a consolidated body; a league.

(countable) A trade union; a workers' union.

(countable) An association of students at a university for social and/or political purposes; also in some cases a debating body.

(countable) A joint or other connection uniting parts of machinery, such as pipes.

The set containing all of the elements of two or more sets.

(countable) The act or state of marriage.

Sexual intercourse.

A data structure that can store any of various types of item, but only one at a time.

A large, high-quality pearl.

(historical) An affiliation of several parishes for joint support and management of their poor; also the jointly-owned workhouse.

To combine sets using the union operation.

The act of uniting or joining two or more things into one, or the state of being united or joined; junction; coalition; combination.

Agreement and conjunction of mind, spirit, will, affections, or the like; harmony; concord.

That which is united, or made one; something formed by a combination or coalition of parts or members; a confederation; a consolidated body; a league; as, the weavers have formed a union; trades unions have become very numerous; the United States of America are often called the Union.

A textile fabric composed of two or more materials, as cotton, silk, wool, etc., woven together.

A large, fine pearl.

Example: ‘If they [pearls] be white, great, round, smooth, and weighty . . . our dainties and delicates here at Rome . . . call them unions, as a man would say "singular," and by themselves alone.’; ‘In the cup an union shall he throw,Richer than that which four successive kingsIn Denmark's crown have worn.’;

A device emblematic of union, used on a national flag or ensign, sometimes, as in the military standard of Great Britain, covering the whole field; sometimes, as in the flag of the United States, and the English naval and marine flag, occupying the upper inner corner, the rest of the flag being called the fly. Also, a flag having such a device; especially, the flag of Great Britain.

A joint or other connection uniting parts of machinery, or the like, as the elastic pipe of a tender connecting it with the feed pipe of a locomotive engine; especially, a pipe fitting for connecting pipes, or pipes and fittings, in such a way as to facilitate disconnection.

A cask suspended on trunnions, in which fermentation is carried on.

Example: ‘One kingdom, joy, and union without end.’; ‘[Man] is to . . . begetLike of his like, his image multiplied.In unity defective; which requiresCollateral love, and dearest amity.’;

an organization of employees formed to bargain with the employer;

Example: ‘you have to join the union in order to get a job’;

the United States (especially the northern states during the American Civil War);

Example: ‘he has visited every state in the Union’; ‘Lee hoped to detach Maryland from the Union’; ‘the North's superior resources turned the scale’;

the act of pairing a male and female for reproductive purposes;

Example: ‘the casual couplings of adolescents’; ‘the mating of some species occurs only in the spring’;

the state of being joined or united or linked;

Example: ‘there is strength in union’;

the state of being a married couple voluntarily joined for life (or until divorce);

Example: ‘a long and happy marriage’; ‘God bless this union’;

healing process involving the growing together of the edges of a wound or the growing together of broken bones

a political unit formed from previously independent people or organizations;

Example: ‘the Soviet Union’;

a set containing all and only the members of two or more given sets;

Example: ‘let C be the union of the sets A and B’;

the occurrence of a uniting of separate parts;

Example: ‘lightning produced an unusual union of the metals’;

a device on a national flag emblematic of the union of two or more sovereignties (typically in the upper inner corner)

the act of making or becoming a single unit;

Example: ‘the union of opposing factions’; ‘he looked forward to the unification of his family for the holidays’;

being of or having to do with the northern United States and those loyal to the Union during the Civil War;

Example: ‘Union soldiers’; ‘Federal forces’; ‘a Federal infantryman’;

of trade unions;

Example: ‘the union movement’; ‘union negotiations’; ‘a union-shop clause in the contract’;