union

[yoon-yuh n] /ˈyun yən/
noun
1.
the act of uniting two or more things.
2.
the state of being united.
3.
something formed by uniting two or more things; combination.
4.
a number of persons, states, etc., joined or associated together for some common purpose:
student union; credit union.
5.
a group of states or nations united into one political body, as that of the American colonies at the time of the Revolution, that of England and Scotland in 1707, or that of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801.
6.
the Union, the United States:
The Union defeated the Confederacy in 1865.
7.
a device emblematic of union, used in a flag or ensign, sometimes occupying the upper corner next to the staff or occupying the entire field.
8.
the act of uniting or an instance of being united in marriage or sexual intercourse:
an ideal union; an illicit union.
9.
an organization of workers; a labor union.
10.
Mathematics.
  1. Also called join, logical sum, sum. the set consisting of elements each of which is in at least one of two or more given sets. Symbol: ∪.
  2. the least upper bound of two elements in a lattice.
11.
the process or result of merging or integration of disjoined, severed, or fractured elements, as the healing of a wound or broken bone, the growing together of the parts in a plant graft, the fusion of pieces in a welding process, or the like.
12.
the junction or location at which the merging process has taken place.
13.
any of various contrivances for connecting parts of machinery or the like.
14.
Textiles.
  1. a fabric of two kinds of yarn.
  2. a yarn of two or more fibers.
Origin
1400-50; late Middle English < Middle French < Late Latin ūniōn- (stem of ūniō), equivalent to Latin ūn(us) one + -iōn- -ion
Related forms
interunion, noun, adjective
misunion, noun
preunion, adjective
prounion, adjective
self-union, noun
Synonyms
1. Union, unity agree in referring to a oneness, either created by putting together, or by being undivided. A union is a state of being united, a combination, as the result of joining two or more things into one: to promote the union between two families; the Union of England and Scotland. Unity is the state or inherent quality of being one, single, individual, and indivisible (often as a consequence of union): to find unity in diversity; to give unity to a work of art. 5. See alliance. 8. wedlock; liaison.
Antonyms
1, 2. separation, division.

Union

[yoon-yuh n] /ˈyun yən/
noun
1.
a township in NE New Jersey.
2.
a city in NW South Carolina.
Examples from the web for union
  • His first reports were of vivid descriptions of violent demonstrations against the union.
  • The deportations had a profound effect on the peoples of the soviet union.
  • This is heavily contrasted to the command economy model of the former soviet union.
  • He also acquired the power to appoint key officers throughout the union.
British Dictionary definitions for union

union

/ˈjuːnjən/
noun
1.
the condition of being united, the act of uniting, or a conjunction formed by such an act
2.
an association, alliance, or confederation of individuals or groups for a common purpose, esp political
3.
agreement or harmony
4.
short for trade union
5.
the act or state of marriage or sexual intercourse
6.
a device on a flag representing union, such as another flag depicted in the top left corner
7.
a device for coupling or linking parts, such as pipes
8.
(often capital)
  1. an association of students at a university or college formed to look after the students' interests, provide facilities for recreation, etc
  2. the building or buildings housing the facilities of such an organization
9.
(maths) Also called join. a set containing all members of two given sets. Symbol: ⋃, as in A⋃B
10.
(in 19th-century England)
  1. a number of parishes united for the administration of poor relief
  2. a workhouse supported by such a combination
11.
(textiles) a piece of cloth or fabric consisting of two different kinds of yarn
12.
(modifier) of or related to a union, esp a trade union
Word Origin
C15: from Church Latin ūniō oneness, from Latin ūnus one

Union

/ˈjuːnjən/
noun the Union
1.
(Brit)
  1. the union of England and Wales from 1543
  2. the union of the English and Scottish crowns (1603–1707)
  3. the union of England and Scotland from 1707
  4. the political union of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1920)
  5. the union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1920
2.
(US)
  1. the United States of America
  2. the northern states of the US during the Civil War
  3. (as modifier): Union supporters
3.
short for the Union of South Africa
Word Origin and History for union
n.

early 15c., "action of joining one thing to another," from Old French union (12c.), from Late Latin unionem (nominative unio) "oneness, unity, a uniting," also in Latin meaning "a single pearl or onion," from unus "one," from PIE *oinos (see one).

Sense of "action of uniting into one political body" is attested from 1540s. Meaning "group of people or states" is from 1650s. Short for trade union, it is recorded from 1833. U.S. political sense is attested from 1775; used especially during the Civil War, in reference to the remainder of the United States after the Southern secession.

union in Medicine

union un·ion (yōōn'yən)
n.

  1. The joining or amalgamation of two or more bodies.

  2. The structural adhesion of the edges of a wound.

union in Science
union
  (yn'yən)   
A set whose members belong to at least one of a group of two or more given sets. The union of the sets {1,2,3} and {3,4,5} is the set {1,2,3,4,5}, and the union of the sets {6,7} and {11,12,13} is the set {6,7,11,12,13}. The symbol for union is . Compare intersection.
union in Culture

Union definition


The United States; especially the northern states during the Civil War, which remained with the original United States government. (Compare Confederacy.)

union in Technology


1. An operation on two sets which returns the set of all elements that are a member of either or both of the argument sets; normally written as an infix upper-case U symbol. The operator generalises to zero or more sets by taking the union of the current partial result (initially the empty set) with the next argument set, in any order.
For example, (a, b, c) U (c, d, e) = (a, b, c, d, e)
2. A type whose values may be of one of a number of other types, thet current type depending on conditions that are only known at run-time. A variable of union type must be allocated sufficient storage space to hold the largest component type. Some unions include extra information to say which type of value the union currently has (a "tagged union"), others rely on the program to keep track of this independently.
A union contrasts with a structure or record which stores values of all component types at once.
3. An SQL operator that concatenates two result sets, that must have the same number and types of columns. The operator may be followed by the word "ALL" to indicate that results that appear in both sets should appear twice in the output.
(2002-02-26)