# membership

Pronunciation: US say "MEM-ber-ship" /ˈmɛmbɚˌʃɪp/; UK say "MEM-buh-ship" /ˈmɛmbəʃɪp/

## Noun

1. The state of belonging to a group or organization as one of its members.
   - Simple: Being part of a group, club, or organization as one of its members.
   - _Membership in the union gives workers access to legal advice._
   - _He let his gym membership lapse over the winter._
2. The whole body of people who belong to an organization, considered together.
   - Simple: All the people who belong to a club, group, or organization.
   - _The society's membership has grown to over five thousand this year._
   - _Leaders surveyed the membership before changing the rules._
3. The fact of being one of the elements that belong to a particular set.
   - Simple: Being one of the things that belong to a particular set, in math.
   - _Membership in a set is decided only by whether an element meets the set's defining condition._
   - _The algorithm checks each element's membership in the target set._

## Verb

4. To classify a person as belonging to a particular group or community.
   - Simple: To decide that a person belongs to a certain group or community.
   - _Conversation analysts study how callers membership the person on the other end of the line, often within the first few turns._
   - _Her transcripts show doctors membershipping patients as experts or novices depending on how each question is framed._

## Origin

Formed from "member" combined with the suffix "-ship".

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