Association of ideas Meaning, Definition & Usage

Definitions
  1. (Physiol.), the combination or connection of states of mind or their objects with one another, as the result of which one is said to be revived or represented by means of the other. The relations according to which they are thus connected or revived are called the law of association. Prominent among them are reckoned the relations of time and place, and of cause and effect.

Webster 1913