# associate

Pronunciation: say "uh-SOH-shee-ayt" US /əˈsoʊʃieɪt/, UK /əˈsəʊʃieɪt/

## Verb

1. To connect one thing with another by evidence or in the mind and imagination.
   - Simple: To link one thing with another in your mind.
   - _Investigators associate the fingerprints with a single suspect._
   - _Many people associate bright colors with feelings of happiness._
4. To spend time socially with others; to keep company.
   - Simple: To spend time with people in a friendly way.
   - _They associate freely with neighbors at the community center._
   - _He was warned not to associate with that crowd._
8. To join oneself with another as a partner, ally, or friend.
   - Simple: To join yourself with someone as a partner, friend, or ally.
   - _They associate themselves with several progressive causes._
   - _He associated himself with a group of young reformers._
9. To connect or join one thing with another; to combine them.
   - Simple: To connect or put two or more things together.
   - _The framework lets developers associate user accounts with payment records._
   - _In this ore, fine grains of gold are associated with pyrite, so the rock must be crushed to separate them._
10. To join with others in forming a league, union, or organized body.
   - Simple: To join with other people to form a group, union, or club.
   - _The guilds associated to protect their shared trade interests._
   - _Independent vendors often associate under a single banner to gain bargaining power._
13. To give one's open support or endorsement to a person, message, or position.
   - Simple: To publicly back or support a person, idea, or statement.
   - _She associated herself with the campaign's core message._
   - _Members may associate themselves with the official statement during debate._
17. In mathematics, to satisfy the associative law, yielding the same result regardless of how the operands are grouped.
   - Simple: In math, to give the same result no matter how the parts are grouped.
   - _Real-number addition and multiplication both associate, so regrouping the terms leaves the result unchanged._
   - _Because matrix multiplication associates, one may compute the product in any grouping._

## Noun

Pronunciation: say "uh-SOH-shee-uht" US /əˈsoʊʃi.ət/, UK /əˈsəʊʃi.ət/

2. A coworker or colleague; a person with whom one works.
   - Simple: A person you work with at the same job or company.
   - _He asked an associate from the accounting department for advice._
   - _Her former associates still meet for lunch once a month._
3. Someone who works together with others in a business, venture, or undertaking, whether as a partner or as an employee.
   - Simple: A partner or worker who joins with others in a business or project.
   - _She brought on a trusted associate to manage the new branch._
   - _His associates handled the day-to-day running of the company._
7. A partial member of an institution or society, holding some but not all of the status and privileges that full members enjoy.
   - Simple: A member of a group who has only some rights, not full membership.
   - _He joined the college as an associate before earning full membership._
   - _Associates of the academy may attend lectures but cannot hold office._
11. Someone who keeps another person company or shares their life and fortunes as a comrade.
   - Simple: A person who spends time with you and stands by you, like a friend.
   - _All that hard winter at the camp, the old prospector's only associate was a young drifter who shared his fire._
   - _The detective questioned several of the suspect's known associates._
14. A thing that habitually accompanies another; an attendant circumstance.
   - Simple: Something that regularly goes along with another thing.
   - _Anxiety is a frequent associate of chronic overwork._
   - _Drought and its familiar associates devastated the region's farms._
16. In ring theory, one of a pair of elements each of which divides the other, so that each is the product of the other and a unit.
   - Simple: In math, one of two values where each one divides evenly into the other.
   - _Among the integers, n and −n are associates because each divides the other._
   - _Every element is an associate of itself, since multiplying by the unit one changes nothing._

## Adjective

Pronunciation: say "uh-SOH-shee-uht" US /əˈsoʊʃi.ət/, UK /əˈsəʊʃi.ət/

5. Joined with another or others while holding a lower or subordinate status.
   - Simple: Joined with others but holding a lower rank or position.
   - _An associate professor often teaches alongside the senior faculty._
   - _The court appointed her as an associate judge for the district._
6. Having partial status or only some of the privileges of full membership.
   - Simple: Having only some of the full rights or membership, not all of them.
   - _His associate standing let him use the lab but not chair it._
   - _The academy offered her an associate position with limited voting rights._
12. Coming along with or following something else; accompanying or concomitant.
   - Simple: Happening or coming along with something else at the same time.
   - _The infection brought a fever and several associate complications._
   - _Engineers studied the earthquake and its associate aftershocks._

## Adjective

Pronunciation: say "uh-SOH-shee-uht" US /əˈsoʊʃi.ət/, UK /əˈsəʊʃi.ət/

15. Connected to another by habit or natural sympathy, as in living closely together. *(dated)*
   - Simple: Linked to another living thing by habit or shared feeling.

## Verb

18. To accompany someone; to be in another person's company, often as an escort. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To go along with someone and keep them company.
   - _Three knights associated the king as he rode toward the border._
   - _Custom required that a chaperone associate the young lady at all hours._

## Origin

**Meanings 5–6, 12, 15** — From Middle English associat(e), from Latin associātus, the past participle of associō ("to join, unite"), formed from ad- plus sociō, from socius ("shared, common, kindred").
**Meanings 2–3, 7, 11, 14, 16** — Formed by turning the adjective in Etymology 1 into a noun, using the noun-forming suffix -ate.
**Meanings 1, 4, 8–10, 13, 17–18** — From Middle English associat(e) ("associated, allied"), with the verb-forming suffix -ate; the verb *associaten is not found in Middle English and is attested only later. A doublet of associe.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/associate (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).