Association

How to spell association

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce association

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does association mean?

1. nounA formally organised body of people united for a shared purpose or interest.
2. nounA mental or logical connection linking one thing with another.

Association in a sentence

• The residents formed an association to manage the shared garden.

• For her, the smell of pine carried a strong association with childhood holidays.

• The trade association lobbied the government for lower tariffs.

• The brand spent millions building a positive association with luxury.

Where does association come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb associare, meaning 'to join with' or 'to unite', which was built from the prefix ad- ('to, toward', reduced to as- before the s) and socius, meaning 'companion' or 'ally'. That same socius root gives us 'social', 'society', and 'associate', all sharing the idea of people bound together. The form association arose in Medieval Latin as associationem, a noun describing the act of joining or the body of people so joined. English took the word in through Old French and Latin scholarship around the late 1400s, first in the sense of fellowship or partnership, and later for the mental linking of ideas in the 1600s. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the soft c sound is written with -ci-, not -si- or -ti-, a direct echo of the socius root that learners find easy to forget.

How the word is built

• as- (from ad-: to, toward)
• soci (from socius: companion, ally)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix)