Alliance, n.
Etymology: [OE. aliaunce, OF. aliance, F. alliance, fr. OF. alier, F. allier. See Ally, and cf. LL. alligantia.]
1. The state of being allied; the act of allying or uniting; a union or connection of interests between families, states, parties, etc., especially between families by marriage and states by compact, treaty, or league; as, matrimonial alliances; an alliance between church and state; an alliance between France and England.
2. Any union resembling that of families or states; union by relationship in qualities; affinity. The alliance of the principles of the world with those of the gospel. C. J. Smith. The alliance . . . between logic and metaphysics. Mansel.
3. The persons or parties allied. Udall.
Syn. -- Connection; affinity; union; confederacy; confederation; league; coalition.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Alliance, v. t.
To connect by alliance; to ally. [Obs.]
Shades of meaning
Alliance is in its most common use a connection formed by treaty between sovereign states as for mutual aid in war. Partnership is a mercantile word; alliance chiefly political or matrimonial. Coalition is oftenest used of political parties; fusion is now the more common word in this sense. In an alliance between nations there is no surrender of sovereignty, and no union except for a specified time and purpose. League and alliance are used with scarcely perceptible difference of meaning. In a confederacy or confederation there is an attempt to unite separate states in a general government without surrender of sovereignty. Union implies so much concession as to make the separate states substantially one. Federation is mainly a poetic and rhetorical word expressing something of the same thought, as in Tennyson's "federation of the world," Locksley Hall, l. 128. The United States is not a confederacy nor an alliance; the nation might be called a federation, but prefers to be styled a federal union.
Prepositions
Alliance with a neighboring people; against the common enemy; for offense and defense; alliance of, between, or among nations.