Princeton's WordNet(4.50 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. combination(noun)

   a collection of things that have been combined; an assemblage of separate parts or qualities

2. combination(noun)

   a coordinated sequence of chess moves

3. combination(noun)

   a sequence of numbers or letters that opens a combination lock

   "he forgot the combination to the safe"

4. combination(noun)

   a group of people (often temporary) having a common purpose

   "they were a winning combination"

5. combination(noun)

   an alliance of people or corporations or countries for a special purpose (formerly to achieve some antisocial end but now for general political or economic purposes)

6. combination(noun)

   the act of arranging elements into specified groups without regard to order

7. combination, combining, compounding(noun)

   the act of combining things to form a new whole

Wiktionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. combination(Noun)

   The act of combining, the state of being combined or the result of combining.

2. combination(Noun)

   A sequence of numbers or letters used to open a combination lock.

3. combination(Noun)

   One or more elements selected from a set without regard to the order of selection.

4. combination(Noun)

   An association or alliance of people for some common purpose.

5. combination(Noun)

   A combination shot; a billiard; a shot where the cue ball hits a ball that strikes another ball on the table.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Combination(noun)

   the act or process of combining or uniting persons and things

2. Combination(noun)

   the result of combining or uniting; union of persons or things; esp. a union or alliance of persons or states to effect some purpose; -- usually in a bad sense

3. Combination(noun)

   the act or process of uniting by chemical affinity, by which substances unite with each other in definite proportions by weight to form distinct compounds

4. Combination(noun)

   the different arrangements of a number of objects, as letters, into groups

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Combination

   In mathematics a combination is a way of selecting several things out of a larger group, where order does not matter. In smaller cases it is possible to count the number of combinations. For example given three fruit, say an apple, orange and pear, there are three combinations of two that can be drawn from this set: an apple and a pear; an apple and an orange; or a pear and an orange. More formally a k-combination of a set S is a subset of k distinct elements of S. If the set has n elements the number of k-combinations is equal to the binomial coefficient which can be written using factorials as whenever, and which is zero when . The set of all k-combinations of a set S is sometimes denoted by . Combinations can refer to the combination of n things taken k at a time without or with repetitions. In the above example repetitions were not allowed. If however it was possible to have two of any one kind of fruit there would be 3 more combinations: one with two apples, one with two oranges, and one with two pears. With large sets, it becomes necessary to use more sophisticated mathematics to find the number of combinations. For example, a poker hand can be described as a 5-combination of cards from a 52 card deck. The 5 cards of the hand are all distinct, and the order of cards in the hand does not matter. There are 2,598,960 such combinations, and the chance of drawing any one hand at random is 1 / 2,598,960.

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'combination' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #2275

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'combination' in Written Corpus Frequency: #4319

3. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'combination' in Nouns Frequency: #861

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of combination in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of combination in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7

Sample Sentences & Example Usage

1. Barry Stuppler:

   It is a combination of the economy coming back.

2. Mark Twain:

   Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.

3. Guillaume Demarne:

   A combination of these is helping firms improve margins.

4. Angela Wright:

   So this combination can result in an instinctive loyalty.

5. Al Baker:

   It's between 25 and 30 aircraft, a combination of the two.

Images & Illustrations of combination