federation

Pluralfederations

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A union of nations or states joined under one central authority, which the members themselves elect.

   Each member state of the federation sends delegates to elect the central council.

   Some federations give their regions wide powers over schools and policing.

   Similarunion, confederation

2. 2
   nouncountable

   Any society or organization formed by bringing together separate groups or bodies.

   The national tennis federation suspended two players for breaking anti-doping rules.

   Several labor federations joined the strike, bringing hundreds of local unions with them.

   Similarassociation, league, union, alliance, confederation

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The process by which separate units, such as states or colonies, unite to form one political whole.

   Supporters of federation argued that the colonies needed a common defense.

   The island's federation with its larger neighbor was approved in a referendum.

   Similarunion, unification, amalgamation

   Oppositesecession, separation

   Note

   This is the action noun of federate, borrowed from French fédération and Late Latin foederatio. Without an article it often names one country's founding union, as in it is 106 years since federation; with an article or a possessive it describes any such joining, as in the island's federation with its neighbor.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A collection of network or telecommunications providers whose services can work with one another.

   The universities formed a federation so visiting researchers could use any member's Wi-Fi with their home login.

   Chat servers in the federation pass messages to one another using a shared protocol.

   Similarconsortium, alliance

   Note

   Cooperation without merger is the point here: each provider keeps running its own system, and agreed standards let users and data pass from one to another. Email works this way, and the same idea lies behind shared logins across institutions and roaming between networks.

5. 5
   adjectiveAustralia

   Belonging to the architectural style popular around the time of Australia's federation.

   They restored the federation home's leadlight windows and decorative timber fretwork.

   Renovating a Federation bungalow in the inner west cost them far more than they'd budgeted.

   Note

   Australians use the label mostly of houses, written with or without a capital: a federation house, a Federation bungalow. The capital points back to the act of joining together that gave the period its name. The term turns up in travel handbooks and collectors' guides as readily as in histories, wherever the period's houses are described or sold.

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