organization definition

English

Alternative forms

• organisation (UK, Australia, New Zealand)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French organisation, from Medieval Latin organizātiō; by surface analysis, organize +‎ -ation.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɔːɡənaɪˈzeɪʃən/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɔɹɡənɪˈzeɪʃən/, (rarer) /ˌɔɹɡnɪˈzeɪʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˌɔɹɡənaɪˈzeɪʃən/
• (Philippine, nonstandard) IPA^(key): /ˌɔɹˈɡænɪzeɪʃən/
• Hyphenation: or‧ga‧ni‧za‧tion
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

organization (countable and uncountable, plural organizations)

2. (uncountable) The quality of being organized.

   This painting shows little organization at first glance, but little by little the structure becomes clear.

   • 2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure. Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness.

4. (uncountable) The way in which something is organized, such as a book or an article.

   The organization of the book is as follows.

6. (countable) A group of people or other legal entities with an explicit purpose and written rules.

   In response to the crisis, the nations in the region formed an organization.   If you want to be part of this organization, you have to follow its rules.

8. (countable) A group of people consciously cooperating.

   Over time, the spontaneous movement had become an organization.

10. (baseball) A major league club and all its farm teams.

    He's been in the Dodgers' organization since 2003.

Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:organization

Derived terms

Related terms

• organize

Translations

Further reading

• organization on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “organization”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “organization”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.