kɒmbɪˈneɪʃən kɑmbɪˈneɪʃən the act of combining things to form a new whole the act of arranging elements into specified groups without regard to order a collection of things that have been combined; an assemblage of separate parts or qualities an alliance of people or corporations or countries for a special purpose (formerly to achieve some antisocial end but now for general political or economic purposes) a group of people (often temporary) having a common purpose they were a winning combination a sequence of numbers or letters that opens a combination lock he forgot the combination to the safe a coordinated sequence of chess moves