colligation

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the act of binding, joining, or connecting things together

   The surgeon used a firm colligation to secure the damaged tissue.

2. 2
   noun

   the unification of separate facts under one explanatory idea or hypothesis

   The theory achieved a convincing colligation of observations from several experiments.

From Latin colligatio ("a binding together"), from colligare, combining com- ("together") + ligare ("to bind"). Nineteenth-century philosophy of science extended physical binding to the act of connecting facts through a general conception.

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