collaboration

[kuh-lab-uh-rey-shuhn]

noun

1. the act or process of working together or cooperating.

   Chat tools provide opportunity for real-time collaboration and dialogue.

2. a product resulting from working together or cooperating.

   This dictionary is a collaboration of many minds.

Other Word Forms

• noncollaboration noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of collaboration¹

First recorded in 1855–60; from French, from Late Latin collabōrāt ( us ) ( collaborate ) + French -ion -ion

Example Sentences

The deal also covered greater collaboration around cyberspace and electromagnetic warfare, the documents said.

From BBC

Featuring Pakistani and Ugandan dishes important to the Rajanis, the menu ensures the collaboration reflects not just what they do, but who they are.

From Salon

The pop superstar follows up last year’s messy ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ with a tidy collaboration with Max Martin and Shellback.

From Los Angeles Times

In its foregrounding of the prisoners’ own communications, “The Alabama Solution” is a unique collaboration between outside and inside, an investigation conducted away from a secretive administration’s controlling eyes.

From Los Angeles Times

Swift's new music is more cool and collected than her previous collaborations with Martin; tapping into the atmospheric textures of his recent hits for The Weeknd and Ariana Grande.

From BBC

Related Words

• association 
• collusion 
• combination 
• concert 
• participation 
• partnership 
• teamwork 

When To Use

What does collaboration mean?

Collaboration is the act of working together, especially on a goal or shared project.It can also be used to refer to a product of collaboration, as in The new single is a  collaboration from the two pop stars. Collaboration is the noun form of the verb collaborate, meaning to work together.Collaboration is often used in a positive context to refer to two or more parties successfully working together on professional or artistic projects. It often implies not just cooperation but sharing and developing of each other’s ideas.Such a joint effort can be described with the adjective collaborative. People who collaborate are called collaborators.Collaboration can also be used in a much more specific way referring to cooperation as a traitor with enemy forces in one’s own country. This is much less commonly used than its general sense.Example: This project would not have happened without close collaboration between all the departments.