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relation

re·la·tion/ɹɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/noun

relation is a noun meaning “The manner in which two things may be associated” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-E-L-A-T-I-O-N and has 3 syllables (re·la·tion), and it appears 20 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of relation is relations.

What does relation mean?

noun

  1. 1

    The manner in which two things may be associated.

    The relation between diet and health is complex.

  2. 2

    A member of one's extended family; a relative.

    Yes, he's a relation of mine, but only a distant one.

  3. 3

    A relationship; the manner in which and tone with which people or states, etc. interact.

    the foreign relations of the United States

  4. 4

    The act of relating a story.

    Your relation of the events is different from mine.

  5. 5

    A set of ordered tuples.

  6. 6

    A set of ordered pairs; a binary relation.

    Equality is a symmetric relation, while divisibility is not.

  7. 7

    A set of tuples, implemented as a table in a relational database.

    This relation uses the customer's social security number as a key.

  8. 8

    A statement of equality of two products of generators, used in the presentation of a group.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce relation?

  • US /ɹɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/
  • Australia /ɹəˈlæ̝ɪʃ(ə)n/

Relation has 3 syllables, split re·la·tion in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-relation.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-relation.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of relation

  • relations plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is relation?

Relation appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,224th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Relation in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchrelation (way in which two things may be associated), parent, parente, parenté, parentage (member of one's family)
GermanBeziehung (way in which two things may be associated), Verwandter, Verwandte, Verwandtschaft (member of one's family), Relation (mathematics: set of ordered tuples, a Boolean…)
Portugueserelação (way in which two things may be associated), parente (member of one's family)
Spanishrelación (way in which two things may be associated), pariente (member of one's family), relaciones sexuales (sexual relations)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does relation come from?

From Middle English relacion, relacioun, from Anglo-Norman relacioun and Old French relacion (whence French relation), from Latin relātiō, noun of process form from perfect passive participle relātus (“related”), from verb referō (“to refer, to relate”), from prefix re- (“again”) + ferō (“to bear, to carry”). By surface analysis, relate + -ion. Doublet of relazione.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).