Definition of "confederation" [con•fed•er•a•tion]

• The act of forming into or becoming part of a confederacy. (noun)
• The state of being confederated. (noun)
• A group of confederates, especially of states or nations, united for a common purpose; a league. (noun)
• The union of the British North American colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada, brought about July 1, 1867, under the name Dominion of Canada. (noun)
• The federal union of all the Canadian provinces and territories, the most recent member being Newfoundland in 1949. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This simple fact gives the Prime Minister unbridled power and our confederation is littered with the corpses of bad legislation forced through Parliament by unscrupulous, corrupt Prime Ministers."
• "Humans are killing the Earth and the alien confederation is distraught by this."
• "It also underlines, in a sometimes embarrassingly blunt way, why for many in the current generation of Quebec political leaders the status quo of the Canadian confederation is unacceptable."