coordination
- 1The act of making different people or things work together for a shared goal or effect.
Like a conductor bringing every section of an orchestra in at the right moment.
Successful disaster relief depends on the coordination of many agencies.
The coordination of supply and delivery kept the warehouse running on schedule.
Similarorganization, orchestration, management, integration, synchronization
Note
Built from Latin con- "together" and ōrdinātiō "arranging", the word reached English through Middle French and still carries that picture of setting things in order side by side. Older writers hyphenate it: Robert W. Chambers, in In Secret (1919), laments "no proper co-ordination" among police and state agencies. The closed spelling, coordination, is the modern form. The hyphenated one is a variant you will meet in older prose.
- 2The resulting state of people or things working together; cooperation or synchronization.
The smooth coordination among departments cut delivery times in half.
Their coordination on the field came from years of practice together.
Similarcooperation, teamwork, collaboration, synchronization, harmony
Oppositedisorganization, discord
Note
Here the word names the outcome rather than the effort: not arranging, but being in step. That outcome is not always welcome. Irving Bacheller's Eben Holden (1900) describes two men dodging each other in the same direction with an "unfortunate co-ordination of purpose", perfect synchronization producing a deadlock. Unlike the act of arranging, this coordination is something people have or lack, not something they carry out.
- 3The ability to control your senses and physical movements together so you can act skillfully.
Like a puppeteer moving many strings at once so the puppet walks naturally.
Tasks like juggling require excellent coordination.
Fatigue can reduce a driver's coordination and reaction time.
Similardexterity, agility, control, balance
Oppositeclumsiness, awkwardness
- 4The equal joining of two or more phrases or clauses, typically with a word such as and, or, or but.
Coordination joins the two independent clauses with the conjunction 'and'.
Using coordination, the writer linked three parallel phrases in a single line.
Oppositesubordination
Note
Grammarians name the parts. Each joined element is a coordinate, and the linking word is the coordinator. In this sense the noun is countable, so linguists speak of coordinations in the plural. Geoffrey K. Pullum, in The Truth About English Grammar (2024), points out a real asymmetry: coordinations with but are limited to two coordinates, while those with and or or can take any number.
- 5The condition of being equal in rank or power with others.
The federal design established coordination between the states, each equal in power.
International law is often described as a law of coordination among sovereign states rather than one imposed from above.
Oppositesubordination
Note
Its natural opposite is subordination. Coleridge, writing in 1833, sets the two against each other: a state may be unified either by "absolute co-ordination of each to all" or by ranking classes and offices beneath one another. The same split between equal and ranked reappears in the joining of equal clauses. A rarer synonym, coordinateness, avoids confusion with the everyday sense of working together.
- 6A reaction in which one or more ligands bond to a metal ion, forming a coordination compound.
Coordination of the metal ion with six ammonia ligands produces a stable complex.
The blue color appears after coordination between copper and the surrounding water molecules.
Note
Chemistry borrows the word for bonding around a central metal ion. The ligands donate electron pairs to the ion, forming dative bonds, and the product is called a coordination compound or complex. The noun also names the field itself: coordination chemistry. Keep it apart from the everyday senses, because nothing here is organized or synchronized, only bonded.
Practice
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Origin
The word comes from Middle French coordination, from Late Latin coōrdinātiōnem, which was formed from con- plus ōrdinātiō. In English it can be analyzed as coordinate plus the suffix -ion.