relation

See also: Relation

English

Etymology

From Middle English relacion, relacioun, from Anglo-Norman relacioun and Old French relacion (whence French relation), from Latin relātiō, noun of process form from perfect passive participle relātus (“related”), from verb referō (“I refer, I relate”), from prefix re- (“again”) + ferō (“I bear, I carry”).

Morphologically relate +‎ -ion

Pronunciation

enPR: rĭ-lā'shən, IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈleɪʃən/
Audio (US) (file)
Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

relation (countable and uncountable, plural relations)

The manner in which two things may be associated.
The relation between diet and health is complex.
- 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314:
  Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.
A member of one's extended family; a relative.
Yes, he's a relation of mine, but only a distant one.
The act of relating a story.
Your relation of the events is different from mine.
- c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, OCLC 8728872, lines 29–30, 33–35, page 62:
  I shall you make relacyon
  By way of apostrofacyon […]
  How I, Skelton laureat,
  Devysed and also wrate
  Uppon a lewde curate, […]
- 1669, Letter from Dr. Merrett to Thomas Browne, in Simon Wilkin (ed.), Sir Thomas Browne’s Works including his Life and Correspondence, London: William Pickering, 1836, Volume I, p. 443,
  Many of the lupus piscis I have seen, and have bin informed by the king’s fishmonger they are taken on our coast, but was not satisfied for some reasons of his relation soe as to enter it into my Pinax […]
- 1691, Arthur Gorges (translator), The Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon (1609), London, Preface,
  […] seeing they are diversly related by Writers that lived near about one and the self-same time, we may easily perceive that they were common things, derived from precedent Memorials; and that they became various, by reason of the divers Ornaments bestowed on them by particular Relations […]
- 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones:
  Jones […] was easily prevailed on to satisfy Mr Dowling's curiosity, by relating the history of his birth and education, which he did, like Othello. […] Mr Dowling was indeed very greatly affected with this relation; for he had not divested himself of humanity by being an attorney.
(set theory) A set of ordered tuples.
- 1974, Thomas S. Szasz, M.D., chapter 7, in The Myth of Mental Illness, →ISBN, page 107:
  […] Signs are, first of all, physical things: for example, chalk marks on a blackboard, pencil or ink marks on paper, sound waves produced in a human throat. According to Reichenbach, "What makes them signs is the intermediary position they occupy between an object and a sign user, i.e., a person." For a sign to be a sign, or to function as such, it is necessary that the person take account of the object it designates. Thus, anything in nature may or may not be a sign, depending on a person's attitude toward it. A physical thing is a sign when it appears as a substitute for, or representation of, the object for which it stands with respect to the sign user. The three-place relation between sign, object, and sign user is called the sign relation or relation of denotation.
(set theory) Specifically, a set of ordered pairs; a binary relation.
Equality is a symmetric relation, while divisibility is not.
(databases) A set of ordered tuples retrievable by a relational database; a table.
This relation uses the customer's social security number as a key.
(mathematics) A statement of equality of two products of generators, used in the presentation of a group.
(category theory) A subobject of a product of objects.
(usually collocated: sexual relation) The act of intercourse.

Synonyms

(way in which two things may be associated): connection, link, relationship
(member of one's family): relative
(act of relating a story): recounting, telling
(mathematics: set of ordered tuples): correspondence
See also Thesaurus:relative

Hyponyms

(set theory): function

Derived terms

interrelation
misrelation
nonrelation
relational
relationist
relationlike
relationship

Expressions

binary relation
blood relation
direct relation
elbow relation
equivalence relation
false relation
finitary relation
grammatical relation
guest relation officer
indirect relation
industrial relations
in relation to
international relations
inverse relation
labor relations
logical relation
partial ordering relation
Plücker relation
poor relation
public relations
race relations
recurrence relation
semantic relation
sexual relations
shirttail relation
spatial relation
thematic relation
total ordering relation

Related terms

relate
relational
relative
relator

Translations

way in which two things may be associated

Bulgarian: отношение (bg) n (otnošenie), зависимост (bg) f (zavisimost)
Czech: vztah (cs) m
Danish: forhold n, relation c
Estonian: suhe
Finnish: suhde (fi)
French: relation (fr)
Galician: relación (gl) f
German: Beziehung (de) f
Hungarian: viszony (hu), kapcsolat (hu)
Japanese: 関係 (ja) (kankei), 関連 (ja) (kanren)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: پەیوەندی‎ (peywendî)
Ladino: raporto m, relasyón f, alishik m, atadijo m
Malayalam: ബന്ധം (ml) (bandhaṃ)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: relasjon (no) m
Nynorsk: relasjon m
Portuguese: relação (pt) f
Romanian: relație (ro), legătură (ro) f
Russian: отноше́ние (ru) n (otnošénije), зави́симость (ru) f (zavísimostʹ), связь (ru) f (svjazʹ)
Sanskrit: बन्धु (sa) m (bandhu)
Slovak: vzťah (sk) m
Slovene: odnos (sl) m, relacija f
Spanish: relación (es) f
Swedish: relation (sv) c, samband (sv) n
Telugu: సంబంధము (te) (sambandhamu)

mathematics: set of ordered tuples, a Boolean function of two or more arguments

Chinese:
Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 关系 (zh)
Czech: relace (cs) f
Dutch: relatie (nl)
Finnish: relaatio (fi)
French: relation (fr) f
German: Relation (de) f
Hungarian: reláció (hu)
Icelandic: ^{(please verify)} vensl n pl
Italian: relazione (it) f
Japanese: 関係 (ja) (kankei)
Persian: رابطه‎ (fa)
Polish: relacja (pl) f
Portuguese: relação (pt) f
Romanian: legătură (ro) f
Slovene: relacija f
Spanish: relación (es) f
Swedish: relation (sv) c

set of ordered tuples retrievable by a database

Finnish: relaatio (fi)
German: Relation (de) f
Japanese: 関係 (ja) (kankei)
Polish: relacja (pl) f
Swedish: relation (sv) c

member of one's family

Armenian: ազգական (hy) (azgakan)
Bulgarian: роднина (bg) m (rodnina)
Czech: příbuzný (cs) m
Danish: slægtning c, familiemedlem (da) n
Dutch: familielid (nl) n, bloedverwant (nl) m, gezinslid (nl), familielid (nl), verwante (nl), verwant (nl), familieverwant, familielui, geboortsverwant
Finnish: sukulainen (fi), omainen (fi)
French: parent (fr) m, parente (fr) f , parenté (fr) f (collective), parentage (fr) m (collective), parentèle (fr) f (collective), parentaille (fr) f (collective, colloquial, pejorative)
Friulian: parint
German: Verwandter (de) m, Verwandte (de) f, Verwandtschaft (de) f (collective), Familienangehöriger (de) m, Familienangehörige (de) f, Angehöriger (de) m, Angehörige (de) f, Familienmitglied (de) n
Hungarian: rokon (hu), hozzátartozó (hu)
Ido: (♂♀) parento (io), (♂) parentulo (io), (♀) parentino (io)
Italian: parente (it) m or f
Maori: kaireperepe (through marriage)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: slektning (no) m, familiemedlem m
Nynorsk: slektning m, familiemedlem m
Portuguese: parente (pt) m or f
Romanian: rudenie (ro) f
Russian: ро́дственник (ru) m (ródstvennik), ро́дственница (ru) f (ródstvennica)
Slovene: sorodnik (sl) m
Spanish: pariente (es) c
Swedish: släkting (sv) c, anhörig (sv) c, familjemedlem (sv) c
Telugu: బంధువు (te) (bandhuvu)
Volapük: (♂♀) röletan (vo), (♂) hiröletan (vo), (♀) jiröletan (vo), (collective ♂♀) röletanef (vo)

act of relating a story

Bulgarian: разказ (bg) m (razkaz), повествова́ние (bg) n (povestvovánie)
Finnish: kertomus (fi)
Hungarian: elmesélés, elmondás, elbeszélés (hu)
Romanian: relatare (ro) f, povestire (ro) f, narare (ro) f
Russian: повествова́ние (ru) n (povestvovánije), изложе́ние (ru) n (izložénije), сообще́ние (ru) n (soobščénije), расска́з (ru) m (rasskáz)

sexual relations

Hungarian: viszony (hu)
Spanish: relación (es) f, relaciones sexuales (es) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} rilato

Anagrams

Oriental, Tirolean, oriental, taileron, tenorial

French

Etymology

From Old French relacion, from Latin relātiō.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʁə.la.sjɔ̃/
audio (file)

Noun

relation f (plural relations)

relation
relationship
Synonym: rapport

Derived terms

relationnel
relations internationales

Related terms

relater
relatif

Anagrams

enrôlait, oriental

Swedish

Etymology

From Latin relātiō.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /rɛlaˈɧuːn/
audio (file)

Noun

relation c

relation; how two things may be associated
(mathematics) relation; set of ordered tuples
(computing) relation; retrievable by a database

Declension

Declension of relation
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	relation	relationen	relationer	relationerna
Genitive	relations	relationens	relationers	relationernas

Anagrams

laotiern

relation

English

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Synonyms

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Derived terms

Related terms

Further reading

Anagrams

Swedish

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Declension

See also

Anagrams