Organization

How to spell organization

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce organization

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does organization mean?

1. nounA structured body of people, such as a company, charity, or institution, working toward shared aims.
2. nounThe act or quality of arranging things in an orderly, systematic way.

Organization in a sentence

• The charity is a nonprofit organization run mainly by volunteers.

• The report praised the clear organization of the financial data.

• Every employee received a memo from the head of the organization.

• Good organization of your files will save hours of searching later.

Where does organization come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek organon, which literally meant a 'tool' or 'instrument', and by extension a working part of the body, an organ. Latin took it up as organum, and from the related verb came the medieval Latin organizare, meaning 'to arrange into a working, living whole', as if giving something the structure of a body with cooperating parts. English borrowed the noun through French organisation in the early 1400s, at first in the biological sense of how living tissue is put together. Over the following centuries the meaning broadened from the structure of a body to the orderly arrangement of any system, and then to a structured group of people working together, such as a company or charity. The spelling here uses the -z ending, reflecting the Greek-derived -ize that grammarians long argued was the more authentic form; the tricky middle is the unstressed schwa in '-ani-', which tempts writers toward 'organisation' or a swallowed vowel.

How the word is built

• organ (from Greek organon: tool, instrument)
• -ize (verb-forming suffix: to make)
• -ation (noun suffix: the act or result of)

British and American spelling

Organization is the American spelling. British English spells it organisation.