conjugation

Borrowed from Latin coniugātiō (“combining, connecting; conjugation”), from coniugō (“join, unite together”). Equivalent to conjugate +‎ -ion.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkɒnd͡ʒəˈɡeɪʃən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌkɑnd͡ʒəˈɡeɪʃən/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

conjugation (countable and uncountable, plural conjugations)

1. The coming together of things; union.
2. (biology) The temporary fusion of organisms, especially as part of sexual reproduction
3. Sexual relations within marriage
4. (grammar) In some languages, one of several classifications of verbs according to what inflections they take.
   • 1530 July 18, Iohan Palſgrave, “The Introduction”, in Leſclarciſſement de la langue francoyſe […] ‎, London: Richard Pynſon, Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, page 32; reprinted as Lesclarcissement de la langue françoyse, Genève: Slatkine Reprints, 1972:

     In ſo moche that if any verbe be of the thyꝛde coniugation / I ſet out all his rotes and tenſes […]

5. (grammar) The act or process of conjugating a verb.
6. (grammar) The product of that act: the conjugated forms of a verb, collected into a list or recitation.

   Meronym: principal parts

7. (grammar, sometimes proscribed) Inflection of nouns or other words besides verbs; declension.
   • 2005, Maya Arad, “The Noun-Verb Asymmetry in Hebrew: When Are Patterns Obligatory?”, in Roots and Patterns: Hebrew Morpho-syntax, →ISBN:

     Nouns ending in a vowel other than a, which do not conform to any phonological pattern of noun conjugation, do not decline.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:conjugation.
8. (chemistry) A system of delocalized orbitals consisting of alternating single bonds and double bonds
9. (mathematics) A mapping sending x to gxg^-1, where g and x are elements of a group; inner automorphism
10. (mathematics) A function which negates the non-real part of a complex or hypercomplex number; complex conjugation

• flexion, inflexion, accidence, flection, inflection

• declension, declination

• conjugate

• flection, flexion, inflection, inflexion