Noun

(en noun)

A number of things or persons being in some relation to one another.

* , chapter=5

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Peter Wilby)

, volume=189, issue=6, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Finland spreads word on schools , passage=Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.}}

(group theory) A set with an associative binary operation, under which there exists an identity element, and such that each element has an inverse.

(geometry, archaic) An effective divisor on a curve.

A (usually small) group of people who perform music together.

(astronomy) A small number (up to about fifty) of galaxies that are near each other.

(chemistry) A column in the periodic table of chemical elements.

(chemistry) A functional entity consisting of certain atoms whose presence provides a certain property to a molecule, such as the methyl group.

(sociology) A subset of a culture or of a society.

(military) An air force formation.

(geology) A collection of formations or rock strata.

(computing) A number of users with same rights with respect to accession, modification, and execution of files, computers and peripherals.

An element of an espresso machine from which hot water pours into the portafilter.

(music) A number of eighth, sixteenth, etc., notes joined at the stems; sometimes rather indefinitely applied to any ornament made up of a few short notes.

(sports) A set of teams playing each other in the same division, while at the same time not playing teams that belong to other sets in the division.

*

Noun

(wikipedia holding) (en noun)

Something that one owns, especially stocks and bonds.

* 2009 , The Economist, Law and order in Italy: Trouble with figures

Italy's right-wing prime minister was about to cure his biggest headache by selling the state's holding in a troubled airline, Alitalia.

A determination of law made by a court.

A tenure; a farm or other estate held of another.

* 1596 , , V. i. 3:

Take again / From this my hand, as holding of the Pope / Your sovereign greatness and authority.

(obsolete) That which holds, binds, or influences.

(Burke)

(obsolete) Logic; consistency.

* 1598 , , IV. ii. 27:

This has no holding , / To swear by him whom I protest to love / That I will work against him.

(obsolete) The burden or chorus of a song.

* 1598 , , II. vii. 109:

Make battery to our ears with the loud music; / The while I'll place you; then the boy shall sing. / The holding every man shall beat as loud / As his strong sides can volley.