From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishconfederationcon‧fed‧e‧ra‧tion /kənˌfedəˈreɪʃən/ noun [countable] PPGa group of people, political parties, or organizations that have united for political purposes or trade SYN alliance
Examples from the Corpus
confederation• On April 14 Clinton also secured the unanimous endorsement of the leadership of the AFL-CIO, the country's main labour confederation.• Country size, for instance, appears to be related to the propensity to centralise collective bargaining authority within national confederations.• As the confederation moved toward constitutional government, issues of internal security were found to require careful consideration.• To the formation of a league, such as was the confederation, the state sovereignties were certainly competent.• The two trade union confederations undertook to refrain from general strikes in return for minimum wage and unemployment benefit guarantees.From Longman Business Dictionaryconfederationcon‧fed‧e‧ra‧tion /kənˌfedəˈreɪʃən/ noun [countable] a group of people, organizations, or countries, who have joined together in order to help each otherthe Confederation of United Kingdom Coal Producers, also known as Coalpro 