corporation

American  

[kawr-puh-ray-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

The Adelanto facility is operated by the GEO Group, a Florida-based private prison corporation that has faced criticism for years over conditions at its immigrant detention facilities.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026

But it was wholly owned by the private corporation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

"There is certainly no corporation tax to recover. Football clubs lose money and City would have lost more money had it not been for the activities it undertook."

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

The firms downsize staff and sell off parts of the purchased company to create dividends, all while charging the purchased corporation management fees for their trouble.

From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2026

To practical men of industry the possibilities seem real enough so that at least one major electronic corporation is preparing to set up a laboratory to test them.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

De Masi said American corporations and the U.S. government must be prepared ahead of “Q-Day”—a looming point in time when quantum computers will be powerful enough to crack today’s widely used public-key cryptography.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

Rising long-term interest rates pose risks to the current bull market since they pressure stock valuation, raise borrowing costs for corporations and increase competition for investor money.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 11, 2026

"There is momentum for climate litigation in the courts," Dennis van Berkel of the Climate Litigation Network, which supports legal action against states and corporations, told AFP.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

Instead of alienating our allies, we should collaborate with them to ensure that multinational corporations aren’t playing us off each other.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

On one side of the fight were the agribusiness corporations, which had just jumped onto the organic food bandwagon.

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

Related Words

• business
• company
• enterprise