[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

affiliation \affil`ia"tion\, n. f. affiliation, ll.
   affiliatio.
   1. adoption; association or reception as a member in or of
      the same family or society.
      1913 webster

   2. law the establishment or ascertaining of parentage; the
      assignment of a child, as a bastard, to its father;
      filiation.
      1913 webster

   3. connection in the way of descent. --h. spencer.
      1913 webster

[2] : WordNet (r) 2.0

affiliation
     n 1: a social or business relationship; "a valuable financial
          affiliation"; "he was sorry he had to sever his ties
          with other members of the team"; "many close
          associations with england" syn: association, tie, tie-up
     2: the act of becoming formally connected or joined; "welcomed
        the affiliation of the research center with the
        university"
see also:
association tie tie-up 

[3] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

216 moby thesaurus words for "affiliation":
   americanization, anschluss, acceptance, accord, acculturation,
   addition, adjunct, admission, adoption, affairs, affinity,
   agglomeration, aggregation, agnation, agreement, alignment,
   alliance, amalgamation, ancestry, apparentation, approximation,
   assemblage, assimilation, association, birth, blend, blending,
   blood, blood relationship, bloodline, body, bond, branch, breed,
   brotherhood, brothership, cabal, cahoots, cartel, centralization,
   church, citizenship by naturalization, citizenship papers,
   closeness, coadunation, coalescence, coalition, cognation,
   colleagueship, collegialism, collegiality, combination, combine,
   combo, common ancestry, common descent, communion, community,
   companionship, company, composition, comradeship, confederacy,
   confederation, confraternity, congeries, conglomeration,
   conjugation, conjunction, connectedness, connection, consanguinity,
   consociation, consolidation, conspiracy, contiguity, contrariety,
   cooperation, copartnership, copartnery, cousinhood, cousinship,
   culture shock, dealings, deduction, denomination, derivation,
   descent, direct line, disjunction, distaff side, division,
   ecumenism, embodiment, embracement, enation, encompassment, enosis,
   espousal, extraction, faction, family, fatherhood, federalization,
   federation, fellowship, female line, filiation, fraternalism,
   fraternity, fraternization, freemasonry, fusion, group, homology,
   hookup, house, inclusion, incorporation, integration, intercourse,
   intimacy, junction, junta, kindred, kinship, league, liaison, line,
   line of descent, lineage, link, linkage, linking, male line,
   marriage, maternity, matrilineage, matriliny, matrisib, matrocliny,
   meld, melding, membership, merger, motherhood, mutual attraction,
   nationalization, naturalization, naturalized citizenship, nearness,
   offshoot, order, organization, package, package deal, papers,
   partaking, participation, partnership, party, paternity,
   patrilineage, patriliny, patrisib, patrocliny, persuasion, phylum,
   propinquity, proximity, race, rapport, relatedness, relation,
   relations, relationship, religious order, schism, school, sect,
   sectarism, seed, segment, sept, sharing, sibship, side, similarity,
   sisterhood, sistership, society, sodality, solidification,
   sorority, spear side, spindle side, stem, stirps, stock, strain,
   succession, sword side, sympathy, syncretism, syndication,
   syneresis, synthesis, tie, tie-in, tie-up, ties of blood,
   unification, union, variety, version, wedding

Affiliation >> A Words
Affiliation, definition of term: Affiliation
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