organization
Pluralorganizations
UK spellingorganisation
- 1A group of people who work together in an organized way for a shared purpose, such as a company, club, charity, or political body.
The nonprofit organization filed its bylaws with the state last year.
She left her law firm to work for a small organization that helps refugees find housing.
Similarclub
- 2The process of planning something out and putting its parts in order, as for an event or a project.
The organization of the three-day conference fell to a small team of graduate students.
He was praised for his organization of the relief effort after the flood.
Similarplanning, coordination, management
Note
Here the -ation of organize names the doing rather than the result: the organization of a conference is the work of arranging it. His organization of the relief effort praises what he did, while the organization of a book describes its finished structure.
- 3The way in which something is arranged or structured, as in a book or an article.
The organization of the manual follows the order of the assembly steps.
Reviewers praised the clear organization of the textbook's chapters.
Similarstructure, arrangement, layout
- 4The quality of being orderly, methodical, and well arranged.
Running a busy restaurant kitchen calls for speed, calm, and a great deal of organization.
The report lacks organization, so its best points are buried in the middle.
UsageGoes with much, little, a lot of: a report lacks organization. With an, the word usually means a group instead.
Similarorderliness, order
Oppositedisorganization, disorder, chaos
Less common meaning
- 5In baseball, a major league club along with all of its affiliated minor league (farm) teams.
The pitcher rose through the organization, starting in the rookie league before his major league debut.
Every pitcher in the organization, from the major league roster down to the lowest minor league team, follows the same training plan.
UsageUsually with a team name: a player in the Dodgers' organization, or one who rose through the organization.
Note
Baseball's word for the whole ladder of affiliated teams, not just the major league club that fans watch. To rise "through the organization" is to climb that ladder level by level toward a major league debut.
Practice
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Origin
Read on the surface, it is "organize" plus the suffix "-ation," but the word was borrowed from Middle French "organisation," which goes back to Medieval Latin "organizātiō."