relation Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of two entities or parts together
  2. noun the act of sexual procreation between a man and a woman; the man's penis is inserted into the woman's vagina and excited until orgasm and ejaculation occur
    congress; intercourse; sexual intercourse; sex act; sexual relation; carnal knowledge; sexual congress; copulation; coitus; coition.
  3. noun a person related by blood or marriage
    relative.
    • police are searching for relatives of the deceased
    • he has distant relations back in New Jersey
  4. noun an act of narration
    telling; recounting.
    • he was the hero according to his own relation
    • his endless recounting of the incident eventually became unbearable
  5. noun (law) the principle that an act done at a later time is deemed by law to have occurred at an earlier time
    relation back.
    • his attorney argued for the relation back of the amended complaint to the time the initial complaint was filed
  6. noun (usually plural) mutual dealings or connections among persons or groups
    • international relations

WordNet

Re*la"tion noun
Etymology
F. relation, L. relatio. See Relate.
Definitions
  1. The act of relating or telling; also, that which is related; recital; account; narration; narrative; as, the relation of historical events.
    oet's relation doth well figure them. Bacon.
  2. The state of being related or of referring; what is apprehended as appertaining to a being or quality, by considering it in its bearing upon something else; relative quality or condition; the being such and such with regard or respect to some other thing; connection; as, the relation of experience to knowledge; the relation of master to servant.
    Any sort of connection which is perceived or imagined between two or more things, or any comparison which is made by the mind, is a relation. I. Taylor.
  3. Reference; respect; regard.
    I have been importuned to make some observations on this art in relation to its agreement with poetry. Dryden.
  4. Connection by consanguinity or affinity; kinship; relationship; as, the relation of parents and children.
    Relations dear, and all the charities Of father, son, and brother, first were known. Milton.
  5. A person connected by cosanguinity or affinity; a relative; a kinsman or kinswoman.
    For me . . . my relation does not care a rush. Ld. Lytton.
  6. (Law) (a) The carrying back, and giving effect or operation to, an act or proceeding frrom some previous date or time, by a sort of fiction, as if it had happened or begun at that time. In such case the act is said to take effect by relation. (b) The act of a relator at whose instance a suit is begun. Wharton. Burrill. Syn. -- Recital; rehearsal; narration; account; narrative; tale; detail; description; kindred; kinship; consanguinity; affinity; kinsman; kinswoman.

Webster 1913