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relation.

The manner in which two things may be associated.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɹɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ɹəˈlæ̝ɪʃ(ə)n/Australia
  1. The manner in which two things may be associated.

    countable · uncountable
    The relation between diet and health is complex.
    There's no linear relation between mortality and size.
  2. A member of one's extended family; a relative.

    countable · uncountable
    Yes, he's a relation of mine, but only a distant one.
  3. A relationship; the manner in which and tone with which people or states, etc. interact.

    countable · in-plural · uncountable
    the foreign relations of the United States
  4. The act of relating a story.

    countable · uncountable
    Your relation of the events is different from mine.
  5. A set of ordered tuples.

    countable · uncountable
  6. A set of ordered tuples. A set of ordered pairs; a binary relation.

    countable · uncountable
    Equality is a symmetric relation, while divisibility is not.
  7. A set of tuples, implemented as a table in a relational database.

    countable · uncountable
    This relation uses the customer's social security number as a key.
  8. A statement of equality of two products of generators, used in the presentation of a group.

    countable · uncountable
  9. A subobject of a product of objects.

    countable · uncountable
  10. The act of intercourse.

    countable · in-plural · often · uncountable
    have relations with
    have sexual relations with
Where this word comes from

From Middle English relacion, relacioun, from Anglo-Norman relacioun and Old French relacion (whence French relation), from Latin relātiō, noun of process form from perfect passive participle relātus (“related”), from verb referō (“to refer, to relate”), from prefix re- (“again”) + ferō (“to bear, to carry”). By surface analysis, relate + -ion. Doublet of relazione.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.