COALITION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does coalition mean? 

• COALITION (noun)
  The noun COALITION has 3 senses:

1. an organization of people (or countries) involved in a pact or treaty

2. the state of being combined into one body

3. the union of diverse things into one body or form or group; the growing together of parts

  Familiarity information: COALITION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COALITION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An organization of people (or countries) involved in a pact or treaty

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

alignment; alinement; alliance; coalition

Hypernyms ("coalition" is a kind of...):

organisation; organization (a group of people who work together)

Meronyms (members of "coalition"):

ally (a friendly nation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "coalition"):

combination (an alliance of people or corporations or countries for a special purpose (formerly to achieve some antisocial end but now for general political or economic purposes))

allies (an alliance of nations joining together to fight a common enemy)

axis; bloc (a group of countries in special alliance)

Allies (in World War I the alliance of Great Britain and France and Russia and all the other nations that became allied with them in opposing the Central Powers)

Central Powers (in World War I the alliance of Germany and Austria-Hungary and other nations allied with them in opposing the Allies)

Allies (the alliance of nations that fought the Axis in World War II and which (with subsequent additions) signed the charter of the United Nations in 1945)

Axis (in World War II the alliance of Germany and Italy in 1936 which later included Japan and other nations)

entente; entente cordiale (an informal alliance between countries)

popular front (a leftist coalition organized against a common opponent)

global organization; international organisation; international organization; world organisation; world organization (an international alliance involving many different countries)

Northern Alliance; United Front (a multiethnic alliance in Afghanistan who practice a moderate form of Islam and are united in their opposition to the Taliban)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The state of being combined into one body

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

coalition; fusion

Hypernyms ("coalition" is a kind of...):

unification; union (the state of being joined or united or linked)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "coalition"):

alliance; confederation (the state of being allied or confederated)

federalisation; federalization (the state of being under federal control)

Derivation:

coalesce (mix together different elements)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The union of diverse things into one body or form or group; the growing together of parts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

coalescence; coalescency; coalition; concretion; conglutination

Hypernyms ("coalition" is a kind of...):

conjugation; jointure; unification; union; uniting (the act of making or becoming a single unit)

Derivation:

coalesce (mix together different elements)

coalesce (fuse or cause to grow together)

 Context examples 

"We shall have a coalition presently," he boomed, looking from his wife to me and puffing out his enormous chest.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A coalition of 26 national research and lay advocacy organizations, and professional groups working to secure adequate federal funding for research to improve cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and survivorship.

(National Coalition for Cancer Research, NCI Thesaurus)