Meaning

1. The act of associating.
2. The state of being associated; a connection to or an affiliation with something.
3. Any relationship between two measured quantities that renders them statistically dependent (but not necessarily causal or a correlation).
4. A group of persons associated for a common purpose; an organization; society.
5. Relationship between classes of objects that allows one object instance to cause another to perform an action on its behalf.
6. A benevolent overseas Chinese organization of popular origin for overseas Chinese individuals with the same surname or trade or business.