conjunction

[ kuhn-juhngk-shuhn ]
See synonyms for conjunction on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the act of joining together, or the state of being so joined; combination, union, or association: The conjunction of everyday life with the magical is a great source for comedy, as in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream.

  2. a combination of events or circumstances: I gave birth to a daughter in International Women's Year, a happy conjunction that changed my personal and professional life.

  1. Grammar.

    • any member of a small class of words distinguished in many languages by their function as connectors between words, phrases, clauses, or sentences, such as and, because, but, however.

    • any other word or expression of similar function, such as in any case.

  2. Astronomy.

    • the coincidence of two or more heavenly bodies at the same celestial longitude.

    • the state of two or more such coinciding heavenly bodies.

  3. Astrology. the coincidence of two or more heavenly bodies at the same celestial longitude, characterized by a unification of the planetary energies; an astrological aspect.

  4. Logic.

    • a compound proposition that is true if and only if all of its component propositions are true.

    • the relation among the components of such a proposition, usually expressed by AND or & or ·.

Idioms about conjunction

  1. in conjunction with,

    • together with; in association or cooperation with: The school offers an apprenticeship program in conjunction with our industry partners.The police, in conjunction with the army, finally established order.

    • with reference to; related to: They hosted a debate in conjunction with the novel The Great Gatsby.

Origin of conjunction

1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English conjunccio(u)n, from Anglo-French, from Latin conjunctiōn-, stem of conjunctiō “a joining together”; equivalent to conjunct + -ion

Other words for conjunction

Other words from conjunction

  • con·junc·tion·al, adjective
  • con·junc·tion·al·ly, adverb
  • non·con·junc·tion, noun

Words Nearby conjunction

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use conjunction in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for conjunction

conjunction

/ (kənˈdʒʌŋkʃən) /


noun
  1. the act of joining together; combination; union

  2. simultaneous occurrence of events; coincidence

  1. any word or group of words, other than a relative pronoun, that connects words, phrases, or clauses; for example and and while: Abbreviation: conj See also coordinating conjunction, subordinating conjunction

  2. astronomy

    • the position of any two bodies that appear to meet, such as two celestial bodies on the celestial sphere

    • Also called: solar conjunction the position of a planet or the moon when it is in line with the sun as seen from the earth. The inner planets are in inferior conjunction when the planet is between the earth and the sun and in superior conjunction when the sun lies between the earth and the planet: Compare opposition (def. 8a)

  3. astrology an exact aspect of 0° between two planets, etc, an orb of 8° being allowed: See opposition (def. 9), square (def. 10)

  4. logic

    • the operator that forms a compound sentence from two given sentences, and corresponds to the English and

    • a sentence so formed. Usually written p&q, p∧q, or p.q., where p,q are the component sentences, it is true only when both these are true

    • the relation between such sentences

Derived forms of conjunction

  • conjunctional, adjective
  • conjunctionally, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for conjunction

conjunction

[ kən-jŭngkshən ]


  1. The position of two celestial bodies when they have the same celestial longitude, especially a configuration in which a planet or the Moon lies on a straight line from Earth to or through the Sun. Planets in this position are not visible to the naked eye because they are in line with the Sun and obscured by its glare; the Moon in this position is new.♦ The inner planets Mercury and Venus have two conjunction points with Earth. Either planet is at inferior conjunction when it lies directly between the Earth and the Sun, and is at superior conjunction when it lies directly opposite Earth on the far side of the Sun. The outer planets have only one conjunction point with Earth, when they lie opposite Earth on the far side of the Sun. Compare opposition. See more at elongation.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Cultural definitions for conjunction

conjunction

A word that joins words or groups of words. There are three kinds of conjunctions: coordinating, correlative, and subordinating. Coordinating conjunctions include and, but, or, not, yet, for, and so. Correlative conjunctions include the words in the pairs either/or, both/and, and neither/nor. Subordinating conjunctions begin subordinate clauses (see subordination) and join them to the rest of the sentence: “She didn't learn the real reason until she left the valley.”

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.