What does corporation mean?
A corporation is a legal entity that the law recognizes as a distinct 'person' — separate from the individuals who own or run it — capable of owning property, entering contracts, suing, and being sued. Most commonly the word refers to a large incorporated business owned by shareholders, whose liability is limited to their investment: if the company fails, their personal assets are protected. This separation of the entity from its owners is what makes corporations so powerful and enduring; they can persist across generations, outliving their founders. The word carries a formal register, often evoking scale and bureaucracy, and is sometimes used critically to suggest impersonal corporate power. In British English, 'corporation' also has a civic sense, referring to the governing body of a city, as in the Corporation of London. Related forms include 'corporate' and 'incorporate.'
A legal entity, authorized by statute and treated as an artificial person, that is separate from its owners and typically formed for business purposes.
"The corporation filed its annual report with the securities regulator last week."
In this dominant sense, 'corporation' usually implies a large, formally structured company; smaller businesses are more often called companies or firms.
(British English) A municipal corporation: the corporate body governing a city or borough.
"The Corporation of London traces its civic rights back to medieval charters."
This civic sense is chiefly British and largely historical or institutional today, most famously surviving in the City of London Corporation.
The standard plural simply adds -s. The plural is common when discussing multiple businesses collectively or contrasting types of entities.
"Multinational corporations wield influence that can rival that of nation-states."
Legally speaking, a corporation is a person — it can own property, sign contracts, sue, be sued, and even outlive every human who founded it.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of corporation
'Corporation' derives from the Latin 'corpus,' meaning 'body,' via Late Latin 'corporatio,' the act of forming into one body, and entered English in the early 15th century, initially referring to organized bodies such as guilds and municipalities. The modern commercial sense — a joint-stock company recognized as a legal person — developed through the early modern period as chartered trading companies emerged. It shares its root with cognates such as 'corporate,' 'corps,' 'corpse,' and 'corporal,' all tracing back to the same Latin noun for body.
Related word forms
How corporation is actually used
Register is neutral to formal; in everyday speech people more often say 'company' or 'business,' while 'corporation' tends to suggest size, formality, and sometimes impersonality. In American usage it almost always denotes an incorporated business; in British usage the municipal sense ('the Corporation of London') survives alongside the business sense. In American English, 'Inc.' after a company name signals incorporation.
Easily confused with corporation
Cooperation means working together with others, while a corporation is a legally incorporated business entity; the words differ by one letter but share nothing in meaning.
Incorporation is the act or process of forming a legal entity, whereas the corporation is the resulting entity itself.