Federation \Fed`er*a"tion\, n. [Cf. F. f['e]d['e]ration.]
   1. The act of uniting in a league; confederation.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. A league; a confederacy; a federal or confederated
      government. --Burke.
      [1913 Webster]

	

	federation
    n 1: an organization formed by merging several groups or parties
    2: a union of political organizations [syn: confederation,
       confederacy, federation]
    3: the act of constituting a political unity out of a number of
       separate states or colonies or provinces so that each member
       retains the management of its internal affairs

	

	160 Moby Thesaurus words for "federation":
   Anschluss, Bund, Rochdale cooperative, absolute monarchy, addition,
   affiliation, agglomeration, aggregation, agreement, alignment,
   alliance, amalgamation, anschluss, aristocracy, assemblage,
   assimilation, association, autarchy, autocracy, autonomy, axis,
   band, blend, blending, bloc, body, cabal, cahoots, cartel,
   centralization, coadunation, coalescence, coalition,
   coalition government, colleagueship, college, collegialism,
   collegiality, colonialism, combination, combine, combo,
   common market, commonwealth, composition, comradeship, confederacy,
   confederation, confraternity, congeries, conglomeration,
   conjugation, conjunction, consolidation, conspiracy,
   constitutional government, constitutional monarchy,
   consumer cooperative, cooperative, cooperative society,
   copartnership, copartnery, corps, council, credit union,
   customs union, democracy, dictatorship, dominion rule, duarchy,
   duumvirate, dyarchy, economic community, ecumenism, embodiment,
   encompassment, enosis, federal government, federalization,
   fellowship, feudal system, fraternalism, fraternity,
   fraternization, free trade area, freemasonry, fusion, gang,
   garrison state, gerontocracy, group, grouping, heteronomy,
   hierarchy, hierocracy, home rule, hookup, inclusion, incorporation,
   integration, junction, junta, league, limited monarchy, machine,
   marriage, martial law, meld, melding, merger, meritocracy,
   militarism, military government, mob, mob rule, mobocracy,
   monarchy, neocolonialism, ochlocracy, oligarchy, package,
   package deal, pantisocracy, partnership, patriarchate, patriarchy,
   police state, political machine, pure democracy, regency,
   representative democracy, representative government, republic,
   ring, self-determination, self-government, social democracy,
   society, sodality, solidification, sorority, stratocracy,
   syncretism, syndication, syneresis, synthesis, technocracy,
   thearchy, theocracy, tie-in, tie-up, totalitarian government,
   totalitarian regime, triarchy, triumvirate, tyranny, unification,
   union, wedding, welfare state