Relation

Pronunciation

• enPR: rÄ­-lā'shÉ™n, IPA: /rɪˈleɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Origin

From Anglo-Norman relacioun, from Old French relacion (cognate to French relation), from Latin relationem, accusative of relatio, noun of process form from perfect passive participle relatus ("related"), from verb referre ("to refer, to relate"), from prefix re- ("again") + ferre ("to bear, to carry")

Full definition of relation

Noun

1. The manner in which two things may be associated.
   The relation between diet and health is complex.
• EHough PrqsPrc|II|0147Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.
2. A member of one's family.
   Yes, he's a relation of mine, but a only distant one.
3. The act of relating a story.
   Your relation of the events is different from mine.
4. (set theory) A set of ordered tuples.
• 1974, Thomas S. Szasz, M.D., The Myth of Mental Illness Chapter 7...Signs are, first of all, physical things: for example, chalk marks on a blackboard, pencil or ink marks on paper, sound waves produced in a human throat. According to Reichenbach, "What makes them signs is the intermediary position they occupy between an object and a sign user, i.e., a person." For a sign to be a sign, or to function as such, it is necessary that the person take account of the object it designates. Thus, anything in nature may or may not be a sign, depending on a person's attitude toward it. A physical thing is a sign when it appears as a substitute for, or representation of, the object for which it stands with respect to the sign user. The three-place relation between sign, object, and sign user is called the sign relation or relation of denotation.
5. (set theory) Specifically, a set of ordered pairs.
   Equality is a symmetric relation, while divisibility is not.
6. (databases) A set of ordered tuples retrievable by a relational database; a table.
   This relation uses the customer's social security number as a key.
7. (mathematics) A statement of equality of two products of generators, used in the presentation of a group.
8. (usually collocated: sexual relation) The act of intercourse.

Synonyms

• (way in which two things may be associated) connection, link, relationship
• (member of one's family) relative
• (act of relating a story) recounting, telling
• (mathematics: set of ordered tuples) correspondence

Hyponyms

• (set theory) function

Derived terms

Related terms

• relate
• relative
• relator

Anagrams

• oriental, Oriental
• tenorial