Corporations

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌkɔɹpɚˈeɪʃənz/

Definitions

1. Groups of individuals organized to conduct business for profit, recognized legally as distinct entities separate from their shareholders
2. Legal entities or organizations formed for profit that allow collective investment and ownership of assets, having rights and obligations
3. Entities legally established to carry out commercial activities and separate from their owners ; sizable business organizations that manage operations across various regions or countries

Etymology: Corporations is simply the plural of "corporation," and the singular has a notably physical origin. Its ancestor is the Latin verb "corporare," meaning "to form into a body," built on "corpus," the Latin word for "body." Medieval Latin then turned the idea into "corporatio," an assumption of a body, and English borrowed the word in Middle English. The sense of a group of people legally treated as one single person came out of that same notion: a collection of individuals gathered into one body. Some English writers also used the word for a protruding belly, probably a playful echo of "corpulence," which comes from the same Latin root for body. That bodily sense is the one that survives most clearly in the older vocabulary.

Synonyms: companies, businesses, firms, enterprises, entities