relation

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   (usually plural) mutual dealings or connections among persons or groups

   international relations

2. 2
   noun

   the principle that an act done at a later time is deemed by law to have occurred at an earlier time

   The attorney argued for the relation back of the amended complaint to the time the initial complaint was filed.

3. 3
   noun

   an act of narration

   They were the hero according to their own relation.

4. 4
   noun

   The manner in which two things may be associated.

   The relation between diet and health is complex.

5. 5
   noun

   A member of one's extended family; a relative.

   Yes, he's a relation of mine, but only a distant one.

6. 6
   noun

   A relationship; the manner in which and tone with which people or states, etc. interact.

   the foreign relations of the United States

7. 7
   noun

   The act of relating a story.

   Your relation of the events is different from mine.

8. 8
   noun

   A set of ordered tuples.

   […]Signs are, first of all, physical things: for example, chalk marks on a blackboard, pencil or ink marks on paper, sound waves produced in a human throat. According to Reichenbach, "What makes them signs is the intermediary position they occupy between an object and a sign user, i.e., a person." For a sign to be a sign, or to function as such, it is necessary that the person take account of the object it designates. Thus, anything in nature may or may not be a sign, depending on a person's attitude toward it. A physical thing is a sign when it appears as a substitute for, or representation of, the object for which it stands with respect to the sign user. The three-place relation between sign, object, and sign user is called the sign relation or relation of denotation.

Etymology

From Middle English relacion, relacioun, from Anglo-Norman relacioun and Old French relacion (whence French relation), from Latin relātiō, noun of process form from perfect passive participle relātus (“related”), from verb referō (“to refer, to relate”), from prefix re- (“again”) + ferō (“to bear, to carry”). By surface analysis, relate + -ion. Doublet of relazione.