Noun

(en noun)

A minor distinction.

Subtlety or fine detail.

Understanding the basics is easy; appreciating the nuances takes years.

* 1901: Alpheus Spring Packard, Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution

...the richer our collections become, the more numerous are the proofs that all is more or less shaded (nuance ), that the remarkable differences become obliterated...

Noun

(en noun)

The act of associating.

The state of being associated; a connection to or an affiliation with something.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April

, author=(Jan Sapp) , title=Race Finished , volume=100, issue=2, page=164 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations —culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?}}

(statistics) Any relationship between two measured quantities that renders them statistically dependent (but not necessarily causal or a correlation).

A group of persons associated for a common purpose; an organization; society.