partnership
Pluralpartnerships
- 1An association of two or more people who join together to conduct a business.
After years of working alone, she finally formed a partnership with a trusted colleague.
The law firm operated as a partnership, with profits split among the senior members.
Similarfirm, company, association
Note
Here the word has legal weight. The partners share the business's profits, losses and liabilities, usually without the limited liability that protects the owners of an incorporated company. Partnerships are typically forged, a verb that suggests deliberate joining and some effort. The word can also name the firm itself, as when a law firm runs as a partnership.
- 2The condition of being associated with another person as one's partner in some shared activity.
The two scientists worked in close partnership throughout the project.
Years of partnership had taught them to anticipate each other's moves.
Similarcollaboration, cooperation, association, teamwork
- 3In cricket, the spell during which two particular batters bat together, lasting from one wicket falling to the next, and the runs scored in that time.
The opening partnership put on eighty runs before lunch.
A patient partnership between the two middle-order batters steadied the innings.
Similarstand
Note
Cricket counts runs by the pair as well as by the batter. A partnership belongs to two players at once and ends the moment either one is out. Commentators speak of an opening partnership, or of a pair who put on so many runs, and the word can mean either the stretch of play or its total. Unlike the general sense of working together, here the bond is measured, not just felt.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from "partner" combined with the suffix "-ship".