corporation

American  

[kawr-puh-rey-shuhn] / ˌkɔr pəˈreɪ ʃən /

noun

corporations plural

1. an association of individuals, created by law or under authority of law, having a continuous existence independent of the existences of its members, and powers and liabilities distinct from those of its members.

2. Corporation, the group of principal officials of a borough or other municipal division in England.

3. any group of persons united or regarded as united in one body.

4. Informal. a paunch; potbelly.

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corporation British  

/ ˌkɔːpəˈreɪʃən /

noun

1. a group of people authorized by law to act as a legal personality and having its own powers, duties, and liabilities

2. Also called: municipal corporation.  the municipal authorities of a city or town

3. a group of people acting as one body

4. See public corporation

5. informal a large paunch or belly

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corporation Cultural  

1. A business organization owned by a group of stockholders, each of whom enjoys limited liability (that is, each can be held responsible for losses only up to the limit of his or her investment). A corporation has the ability to raise capital by selling stock to the public.

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Grammar

See collective noun.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• multicorporation
  noun
• noncorporation
  noun
• subcorporation
  noun
• supercorporation
  noun
• corporational
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• corporations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of corporation

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Late Latin corporātiōn- (stem of corporātiō ) “guild,” Latin: “physical makeup, build”; see corporate, -ion

Explanation

Most of us think of corporations as companies — Amazon is one, Kellogg another, Disney a third. In reality, a corporation has a very particular legal meaning: it's a company that registers with a state government such that it has the same rights and responsibilities as a person. Know the word corpse? It means a dead body, and comes from the Latin corpus, "body." One way to remember corporation is that it turns a company into a body — a body that is considered a person in many respects in the eyes of the law. Corporations must pay taxes and follow laws. Because it is a separate entity, when a corporation fails, its employees and managers are not responsible for its debts.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

corporation corporations

At Anthropic, as at OpenAI, a mission entity—here, a “purpose trust”—controls a public benefit corporation, Anthropic PBC, by appointing a majority of its board.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

That corporation, OpenAI Group PBC, is still fully controlled by the nonprofit, whose mission directors fill the PBC’s board.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

The annual salaries list is far from a complete picture of what top talent at the BBC earn, as the corporation only publishes the names of stars it pays directly.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

Why give any corporation, even an honest one, the opportunity to disclose less?

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

Delays cost money, and the big shots at the Mother Paula’s corporation weren’t happy.

From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen

The books take place in a galaxy where space travel is fast and many people live in indentured servitude to giant corporations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

It’s also the environment that large corporations want to take over with the construction of hyperscale data centers that are at the forefront of the artificial intelligence bubble.

From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026

The purchase comes as the Department of Homeland Security has moved to scale up its capacity to detain immigrants without relying as heavily on private prison corporations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

"British Columbia has never shied away from taking on powerful corporations when their actions cause harm to people and communities," she added.

From Barron's ● Jul. 7, 2026

Despite their having no real bodies, the American legal system treats corporations as legal persons, as if they were flesh-and-blood human beings.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

Related Words

• business
• company
• enterprise