organization

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act or process of organizing.
2. n. The state or manner of being organized: a high degree of organization.
3. n. Something that has been organized or made into an ordered whole.
4. n. Something made up of elements with varied functions that contribute to the whole and to collective functions; an organism.
5. n. A group of persons organized for a particular purpose; an association: a benevolent organization.
6. n. A structure through which individuals cooperate systematically to conduct business.
7. n. The administrative personnel of such a structure.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of organizing, or the process of disposing or arranging constituent or interdependent parts into an organic whole. The process of rendering organic, in any sense.
2. n. The process of arranging or systematizing; specifically, the process of combining parts into a coördinated whole: as, the organization of an expedition.
3. n. That which is organized; a regularly constituted whole or aggregate; an organism, or a systematized and regulated whole; any body which has a definite constitution: often used specifically of an organized body of persons, as a literary society, club, corporation, etc.
4. n. Organic structure or constitution; arrangement, disposition, or collocation of interdependent parts or organs; constitution in general: as, animal organization; the organization of society; the organization of the church or of a legislature. Specifically, the physical constitution of an animal or vegetable body or of one of its parts: used absolutely, the physical or mental constitution of a human being: often used with special reference to the activities or functions which depend upon such organic structure: as, a fine, delicate, or susceptible organization.
5. n. Also spelled organisation.
6. n. In biology: The structural composition of an organism.
7. n. Metaphorically, the cause or explanation of the structure of organisms; that which organizes; an organizing influence. Most of the attempts to imagine an architecture in the egg as an explanation of the structure of the being that is developed from the egg are based upon the metaphorical conception of organization. See germ-plasm and physiological unit.
8. n. In pathology, conversion of an amorphous substance, such as a blood-clot, into organized tissue.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable The quality of being organized.
2. n. uncountable The way in which something is organized, such as a book or an article.
3. n. countable A group of people or other legal entities with an explicit purpose and written rules.
4. n. countable A group of people consciously cooperating.
5. n. baseball A major league club and all its farm teams.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of organizing; the act of arranging in a systematic way for use or action.
2. n. The state of being organized.
3. n. (Biol.) That which is organized; an organized existence; an organism. an arrangement of parts for the performance of the functions necessary to life.
4. n. A group of persons associated together for a common purpose and having a set of rules which specify the relations of the individual members to the whole gorup.
5. n. The manner in which something is organized; the relations included in an organized state or condition.

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 activity or result of distributing or disposing persons or things properly or methodically
3. n. an organized structure for arranging or classifying
4. n. an ordered manner; orderliness by virtue of being methodical and well organized
5. n. the act of forming or establishing something
6. n. a group of people who work together
7. n. the act of organizing a business or an activity related to a business