-ationsuff.1. a. Action or process: strangulation.b. The result of an action or process: acculturation.2. State, condition, or quality of: eburnation.[Middle English -acioun, from Old French -ation, from Latin -?ti?, -?ti?n-, n. suff. : -?-, stem vowel of verbs in -?re + -ti?, -ti?n-, abstract n. suff.]American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.-ation suffix forming nouns indicating an action, process, state, condition, or result: arbitration; cogitation; hibernation; moderation. Compare -ion, -tion [from Latin -?ti?n-, suffix of abstract nouns, from -?tus -ate1 + -i?n -ion]Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014-ation a suffix used to form nouns corresponding to verbs or adjectives ending in -ate1 (separation); on this model, sometimes used to form nouns from other stems (flirtation; starvation). [