association.

1. A relationship or connection between things, events or variables.

2. An organized group of people joined for a shared purpose.

3. A mental link through which an idea, memory or experience brings another to mind.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• statistical association
• association between variables

On the page

The statistical association remained after the specified adjustments.

An association between the variables did not establish which mechanism produced the pattern.

Usage notes

Primary category: analysis / argumentation / evidence. Forms: Singular association; plural associations. Also uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: effect assessment, evidence qualification, conditional reasoning, method comparison. Disciplines: argumentation, research interpretation, analytical writing. Commonness: moderately common.