Relating to or involving the association of ideas or things. The associative nature of the mind allows us to connect seemingly unrelated concepts.
In mathematics, describing a property of operations where the grouping of elements does not affect the result, such as in addition or multiplication. Addition is an associative operation because (a + b) + c is the same as a + (b + c).
Computing: relating to a method of data storage or retrieval in which information is accessed by content rather than by a specific address The processor uses an associative cache to locate frequently accessed data quickly.