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• federation
  federation

  noun

  the act of federating or uniting in a league.
• Federation
  Federation

  noun

  the federation of the Australian colonies in 1901

federation

American  

[fed-uh-ray-shuhn] / ˌfɛd əˈreɪ ʃən /

noun

• federations
  plural

1. the act of federating or uniting in a league.

2. the formation of a political unity, with a central government, by a number of separate states, each of which retains control of its own internal affairs.

3. a league or confederacy.

4. a federated body formed by a number of nations, states, societies, unions, etc., each retaining control of its own internal affairs.

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federation ¹ British  

/ ˌfɛdəˈreɪʃən /

noun

1. the act of federating

2. the union of several provinces, states, etc, to form a federal union

3. a political unit formed in such a way

4. any league, alliance, or confederacy

5. a union of several parties, groups, etc

6. any association or union for common action

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Federation ² British  

/ ˌfɛdəˈreɪʃən /

noun

1. the federation of the Australian colonies in 1901

2. a style of domestic architecture of that period, characterized by red brick, terracotta roof tiles, sinuous curves, and heavy window frames

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• interfederation
  noun
• refederation
  noun
• profederation
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• federations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of federation

1715–25; < Late Latin foederātiōn- (stem of foederātiō ) a leaguing. See federate, -ion

Explanation

A federation is an organization made up of smaller groups, parties, or states. The United States is a federation; the states all fall under the same federal government. The word federation may be most familiar as part of the name of an organization — for example, the International Tennis Federation, the American Advertising Federation, or the National Wild Turkey Federation. If you follow World Cup soccer, you may be interested to learn that the acronym FIFA stands for Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Although the groups within a federation are united around a common goal or ideology, they usually like to keep some control at the local level as well.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

federation Federation federations

Soccer’s much ballyhooed “golden generation,” it was a performance that hardly shone and a sign that whatever progress the federation has made over the past two decades hasn’t gone as far as hoped.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026

Bridging the divide between those factions will be challenging for the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the U.S., said Todd Vachon, director of the Labor Education Action Research Network at Rutgers University.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

Yet "cattle producers still face substantial uncertainty that clouds herd rebuilding decisions," Bernt Nelson, an economist at the federation wrote.

From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026

The petition was started by TVP federation chair Aileen O'Connor who said the decision to consider the killers for early release "pours salt into wounds that have never healed".

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

The federation president gave Bobby a deed for more than an acre of land in Elista, his capital city.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

RBC also detects that during major drawdowns, confidence and sentiment gauges move sharply with readings like the National Federation of Independent Business and the American Association of Individual Investors dropping sharply.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026

"In many countries copyright and data protection laws are not being adequately adapted" to protect performers from AI clones, the International Federation of Actors said last year.

From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026

David Kennedy from the Scottish Police Federation says more dangerous tactics are also employed.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

Von Saher’s daughter, Charlène von Saher, said in an interview that her family gave the painting rights to the Jewish Federation because of that shared mission.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

But none of the times were recognized by the International Swimming Federation because the pool was six metres too long.

From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

He continued to promise increased revenue and greater distribution of funds to soccer federations around the world, which helped bolster support for him through FIFA’s one country-one vote system.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

The national federations of Serbia, Sweden and Wales on Monday withdrew their support for Infantino and England’s FA is expected to do the ‌same.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

Infantino has set a deadline of 19 September for football federations to accept his controversial plans.

From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026

The paper refers to pressure on the FA after "England's governing body joined the Prime Minister and three other federations in criticising the plan".

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

Eventually, internecine warfare erupted between the United States and Soviet Chess federations and FIDE.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

Related Words

• association
• league
• union