affiliate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to bring into close association or connection of action or interest: You can download resources to affiliate your event with our fundraising campaign.
The research center is affiliated with the university.
You can download resources to affiliate your event with our fundraising campaign.
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to attach or unite (oneself or another person) in fellowship or membership; associate (usually followed by with in U.S. usage, by to in British usage).
He affiliated himself with almost every group dedicated to improving the economic condition of the individual farmer.
Some of the Greek mixed-faith families affiliated their children to Orthodox Christianity, others to Islam.
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to trace the descent, derivation, or origin of.
Competing hypotheses affiliate the language with either Afroasiatic or Nilo-Saharan.
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to integrate or extend membership to; adopt (as an affiliate).
The National Golf Federation affiliated the club, giving it an immediate prestige.
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to connect or associate in thought.
Many people tend to affiliate the sciences with better pay and job security.
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Law. to fix the paternity of, as an illegitimate child.
The mother affiliated her child upon John Doe.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a branch organization.
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Commerce.
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a business concern in which a larger concern owns a minority stake, or in which a third concern, the parent of both, owns a majority stake or has been given control by contract.
The video was reportedly broadcast on STV, an affiliate of Global Television, on September 30, 1999.
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(especially in online retail) a company that retails goods on behalf of one or more other companies, paying them a commission.
Cookies are used to track a customer's progress from the website of the affiliate through to the shopping cart of the merchant.
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(in U.S. tax law) subsidiary.
Development Tax Credits are not available for property owned by the taxpayer or an affiliate prior to July 3, 2000.
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a person who is affiliated; associate; subordinate.
verb
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(tr; foll by to or with) to receive into close connection or association (with a larger body, group, organization, etc); adopt as a member, branch, etc
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(foll by with) to associate (oneself) or be associated, esp as a subordinate or subsidiary; bring or come into close connection
he affiliated himself with the Union
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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affiliationnoun
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nonaffiliatenoun
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preaffiliatenoun
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preaffiliateverb
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reaffiliateverb
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affiliableadjective
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affiliativeadjective
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nonaffiliatingadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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affiliatesimple
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affiliatessimple
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have affiliatedperfect
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has affiliatedperfect
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am affiliatingprogressive
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are affiliatingprogressive
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is affiliatingprogressive
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have been affiliatingperfect progressive
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has been affiliatingperfect progressive
Past
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affiliatedsimple
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had affiliatedperfect
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was affiliatingprogressive
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were affiliatingprogressive
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had been affiliatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of affiliate
First recorded in 1755–65; from Latin affīliātus “adopted as son” (past participle of affīliāre ), equivalent to af- af- + fīli(us) “son” + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
An affiliate is a subordinate group or organization associated with a larger group or organization. For example, the American broadcasting company NBC has hundreds of affiliate stations around the country. Affiliate comes from the Medieval Latin term affiliat, meaning "adopted as a son," though it's unlikely NBC sees its affiliate companies in quite that way. The word can also be used to describe someone who simply hangs out with someone else a lot, or keeps company with them regularly, whether for business or not.
Vocabulary lists containing affiliate
President Obama's Speech on ISIL Threat
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Obama's State of the Union Address, 2014
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President Obama's Address to the Nation on ISIS/ISIL
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"If there's no objections, I'd like to call time of death," Toosi said, according to police officer bodycam video obtained by a local NBC News affiliate.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
Salon has affiliate partnerships, which means we may get a share of the revenue from purchases made through links in this article.
From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2026
In 2023, the insurer unit of UnitedHealth Group began to question bills from an affiliate of the Perfect Child it received for a now 10-year-old Columbus, Ohio, patient named Cecilia Margello.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
“Our music has always been our voice and we choose not to publicly affiliate with any single political party,” the Commodores said in a statement on social media.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
She accepted as a representative of the Daughters of Temperance, the women’s affiliate group.
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
To take part in any leadership contest, Carns would need to secure the nominations of 81 Labour MPs, and further endorsements from Labour affiliates such as trade unions.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
Last year, Allen came under fire after announcing sweeping cuts at about two dozen local affiliates that included laying off meteorologists, part of a reorganization to centralize forecasts at the Weather Channel in Atlanta.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026
There were tons of other ABC affiliates that also could have had this complaint lodged against them.
From Slate ● Jun. 2, 2026
He has defended his actions, saying loans to affiliates are common in the industry, no insurance money was used to finance his lifestyle, and he had invested more than $500 million in his insurers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
I'm emailing folks at CNN, MSNBC, the networks, local and regional affiliates.
From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon
They tried to get a firm affiliated with environmental crusader Erin Brockovich interested.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
If a contest does take place, then the victor will be announced on August 29 following a ballot of Labour members and affiliated unions.
From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026
It will be New York City’s only hotel affiliated with Relais & Châteaux, a global association of 580 independent hotels and restaurants.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
The outlet also said that Molly Tea and its affiliated firms had applied for multiple trademarks that were rejected by the China National Intellectual Property Administration.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
Teenagers from the North spend two months to two years at Hangyoreh Middle-High School, a government-funded remedial boarding school affiliated with Hanawon.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
TXSE’s pitch to companies is that affiliating with the state of Texas is the smart business play.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
While still being formulated, it is thought the proposal could involve a local administration of technocrats drawn from Palestinians in Gaza, without affiliating to factions including Hamas.
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2025
In May, both A.L.U. factions visited the Teamsters headquarters in Washington, where Teamsters officials pitched them on the idea of affiliating, Mr. Smalls said.
From New York Times ● Jun. 18, 2024
Unaffiliated voters must sign a document affiliating with the party and affirming that they have not participated in any other party’s nominating contest this year.
From Seattle Times ● May 17, 2024
But what economically affluent group was ever consistently radical, affiliating itself with the aspirations of the poor?
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
