colligation

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

colligation
    n 1: the state of being joined together [syn: {junction},
         {conjunction}, {conjugation}, {colligation}]
    2: the connection of isolated facts by a general hypothesis

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Colligation \Col`li*ga"tion\, n. [L. colligatio.]
   1. A binding together. --Sir T. Browne.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. (Logic) That process by which a number of isolated facts
      are brought under one conception, or summed up in a
      general proposition, as when Kepler discovered that the
      various observed positions of the planet Mars were points
      in an ellipse. "The colligation of facts." --Whewell.
      [1913 Webster]

            Colligation is not always induction, but induction
            is always colligation.                --J. S. Mill.
      [1913 Webster]