institution Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an organization founded and united for a specific purpose
    establishment.
  2. noun an establishment consisting of a building or complex of buildings where an organization for the promotion of some cause is situated
  3. noun a custom that for a long time has been an important feature of some group or society
    • the institution of marriage
    • the institution of slavery
    • he had become an institution in the theater
  4. noun the act of starting something for the first time; introducing something new
    foundation; instauration; founding; introduction; origination; creation; initiation; innovation.
    • she looked forward to her initiation as an adult
    • the foundation of a new scientific society
  5. noun a hospital for mentally incompetent or unbalanced person
    psychiatric hospital; mental institution; mental home; mental hospital; insane asylum; asylum.

WordNet

In`sti*tu"tion noun
Etymology
L. institutio: cf. F. institution.
Definitions
  1. The act or process of instituting; as: (a) Establishment; foundation; enactment; as, the institution of a school.
    The institution of God's law is described as being established by solemn injunction. Hooker.
    (b) Instruction; education. Obs. Bentley. (c) (Eccl. Law) The act or ceremony of investing a clergyman with the spiritual part of a benefice, by which the care of souls is committed to his charge. Blackstone.
  2. That which instituted or established; as: (a) Established order, method, or custom; enactment; ordinance; permanent form of law or polity.
    The nature of our people, Our city's institutions. Shak.
    (b) An established or organized society or corporation; an establishment, especially of a public character, or affecting a community; a foundation; as, a literary institution; a charitable institution; also, a building or the buildings occupied or used by such organization; as, the Smithsonian Institution. (c) Anything forming a characteristic and persistent feature in social or national life or habits.
    We ordered a lunch (the most delightful of English institutions, next to dinner) to be ready against our return. Hawthorne.
  3. That which institutes or instructs; a textbook; a system of elements or rules; an institute. Obs.
    There is another manuscript, of above three hundred years old, . . . being an institution of physic. Evelyn.

Webster 1913