institution

plural institutions

1. countableuncountableA long-established organization or type of organization, particularly one involved with education, public service, or charity work.

   The University of the South Pacific is the only internationally accredited institution of higher education in Oceania.

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   […] these professors of Little Red Schoolhouse-education did not themselves remain in the isolated and handicapped little institution they glorify.

   1922, Annual Meeting, volume 55, Maryland State Teachers' Association, page 67

   It is a common misconception […] that the American Mob began as an Italian institution transplanted directly from Sicily.

   2009, T. J. English, Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster

   As both a social and a religious institution, the parish provided "the support and help" that the immigrants needed in the New World.

   2011, Jay P. Dolan, The American Catholic Experience: A History from Colonial Times to the Present, page 181

   It was Murray's determination that finally motivated Nathan to agree to purchase the restaurant and convert it to the Coney Island-named institution, Nathan's Famous.

   2016, William Handwerker, Jayne A. Pearl, Nathan's Famous: An Unauthorized View of America's Favorite Frankfurter Company, page 52

   Who could be against reason, science, humanism, or progress? The words seem saccharine, the ideals unexceptionable. They define the missions of all the institutions of modernity—schools, hospitals, charities, news agencies, democratic governments, international organizations. Do these ideals really need a defense? They absolutely do. Since the 1960s, trust in the institutions of modernity has sunk, and the second decade of the 21st century saw the rise of populist movements that blatantly repudiate the ideals of the Enlightenment.

   2018, Steven Pinker, “Chapter 3: Counter-Enlightenments”, in Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Penguin, →ISBN

2. countableuncountableA custom or practice of a society or community.

   The institution of marriage is present in many cultures but its details vary widely across them.

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   To the cynical observation that speech is given us to conceal our thoughts it might be added that eating and drinking enable us to hide our feelings. I think that is why food is an institution almost whenever human beings have anything to say to one another.

   1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of London

3. countableuncountableThe building or buildings which house such an organization.

   He's been in an institution since the crash.

4. countableinformaluncountableA mental institution.
5. countableuncountableAny facility where people (especially those who are mentally or physically disabled or sick, or who are prisoners) are committed (confined), where their freedom to leave is restricted.
6. countableinformaluncountableAny long established and respected place or business.

   Over time, the local pub has become something of an institution.

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   [quoting Giles Coren] "The Wykeham Arms [a pub] is destroyed. They have turned a great old English institution into a shameful clip-joint. It's a shuddering, howling tragedy."

   2009 February 19, Gareth Lewis, “Giles Coren slams Winchester pub The Wykeham Arms”, in Southern Daily Echo

7. countableinformaluncountableA person long established in a place, position, or field.

   She's not just any old scholar; she is an institution.

8. countableuncountableThe act of instituting something.

   The institution of higher speed limits was a popular move but increased the severity of crashes.

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   Accordingly if we can show that a barbarous custom, like that of the priesthood of Nemi, has existed elsewhere; if we can detect the motives which led to its institution; if we can prove that these motives have operated widely, perhaps universally, in human society...

   1894, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough

9. countableuncountableChristianityThe act by which a bishop commits a cure of souls to a priest.
10. countableobsoleteuncountableThat which institutes or instructs, particularly a textbook or system of elements or rules.
11. countableinformaluncountableA correctional institution.