administration

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act or process of administering, especially the management of a government or large institution.
2. n. The activity of a government or state in the exercise of its powers and duties.
3. n. The executive branch of a government.
4. n. The group of people who manage or direct an institution, especially a school or college.
5. n. The term of office of an executive officer or body.
6. n. Law Management and disposal of a trust or estate.
7. n. The dispensing, applying, or tendering of something, such as an oath, a sacrament, or medicine.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of administering; direction; management; government of public affairs; the conducting of any office or employment.
2. n. The duty or duties of an administrator; specifically, the executive functions of government, consisting in the exercise of all the powers and duties of government, both general and local, which are neither legislative nor judicial.
3. n. The body of persons who are intrusted with the execution of laws and the superintendence of public affairs: in particular, in Great Britain, the ministry; in the United States, the President and cabinet, or the President and cabinet during one presidential term: as, Washington's first administration.
4. n. Any body of men intrusted with executive or administrative powers.
5. n. The period during which an executive officer or a ministry holds office; specifically, in the United States, the period during which the President holds office.
6. n. Dispensation; distribution; rendering: as, the administration of justice, of the sacraments, or of grace.
7. n. The act of prescribing medically.
8. n. The act of tendering or imposing, as an oath.
9. n. In law: The management of the estate of an intestate person, or of a testator having no competent executor, under a commission (called letters of administration) from the proper authority. This management consists in collecting debts, paying debts and legacies, and distributing surplus among the next of kin.
10. n. In some jurisdictions, the management of the estate of a deceased person by an executor, the corresponding term execution not being in use. Administration of a deceased person's estate may be granted for general, special, or limited purposes; as: Administration durante absentia (during absence), when the next person entitled to the grant is beyond sea.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable The act of administering; government of public affairs; the service rendered, or duties assumed, in conducting affairs; the conducting of any office or employment; direction.
2. n. countable A body that administers; the executive part of government; the persons collectively who are entrusted with the execution of laws and the superintendence of public affairs; the chief magistrate and his cabinet or council; or the council, or ministry, alone, as in Great Britain.
3. n. uncountable The act of administering, or tendering something to another; dispensation.
4. n. uncountable, business Management.
5. n. uncountable, law, UK An arrangement whereby an insolvent company can continue trading under supervision.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of administering; government of public affairs; the service rendered, or duties assumed, in conducting affairs; the conducting of any office or employment; direction; management.
2. n. The executive part of government; the persons collectively who are intrusted with the execution of laws and the superintendence of public affairs; the chief magistrate and his cabinet or council; or the council, or ministry, alone, as in Great Britain.
3. n. The act of administering, or tendering something to another; dispensation.
4. n. The management and disposal, under legal authority, of the estate of an intestate, or of a testator having no competent executor.
5. n. The management of an estate of a deceased person by an executor, the strictly corresponding term execution not being in use.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the persons (or committees or departments etc.) who make up a body for the purpose of administering something
2. n. the act of governing; exercising authority
3. n. the tenure of a president
4. n. a method of tending to or managing the affairs of a some group of people (especially the group's business affairs)
5. n. the act of administering medication
6. n. the act of meting out justice according to the law