An association is a connection between ideas or things, or an organized group of people who share a common purpose or interest.
It comes from Latin *associare*, meaning 'to unite with', from *ad-* 'to' and *socius* 'companion'. Over time it came to mean both mental connections and formal groups of people linked together.
Your brain is basically a giant association machine: learning is mostly about linking new things to what you already know. That’s why memory tricks, metaphors, and stories work so well—they create more and stronger associations.
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