coalition

name

1. Ellipsis of Coalition of the Liberal Party and National Party, the Liberal-National coalition.
2. Ellipsis of Coalition of the Willing (“the coalition of nations operating under United States command against Iraq, in the U.S.-Iraq War (Gulf War II; "Iraq War") and its aftermath”).
3. Any of several series of nations allied against France in the Napoleonic Wars; in the War of the First Coalition, War of the Second Coalition, etc.

noun

Etymology: Borrowed from Middle French coalition, from Medieval Latin coalitiō, coalitiōnem, from Latin coalitus. Compare coalescence.

1. A temporary group or union of organizations, usually formed for a particular advantage.

   “The Liberal Democrats and Conservative parties formed a coalition government in 2010.”

   “At a time when Mr. Cameron is being squeezed from both sides — from the right by members of his own party and by the anti-immigrant, anti-Europe U.K. Independence Party, and from the left by his Liberal Democrat coalition partners — the move seemed uncharacteristically clunky.”

2. The collective noun for a group of cheetahs.

   “Sometimes the ante is upped, the gaggle of bowlers all working on their batsman in turn, like a coalition of cheetahs singling out a vulnerable gazelle, sending their distinctive balls down until the pressure forces a mistake or the batsman gets his own back by smashing a bad ball over everyone’s heads.”

   “Majed Sultan Ali was on his second visit to the game reserve in a bid to photograph a coalition of cheetahs.”