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a A b B c C d D e E f F g G h H i I j J k K l L m M n N o O p P q Q r R s S t T u U v V w W x X y Y z Z

Appendices • Abbreviations • Thesaurus • Rhymes • Frequency lists • Phrasebooks Welcome to the English language Wiktionary, a collaborative project to produce a free-content multilingual dictionary. Designed as the lexical companion to Wikipedia, the encyclopaedia project, Wiktionary has grown beyond a standard dictionary and now includes a thesaurus, a rhyme guide, phrase books, language statistics and extensive appendices. We aim to include not only the definition of a word, but also enough information to really understand it. Thus etymologies, pronunciations, sample quotations, synonyms, antonyms and translations are included. Wiktionary is a wiki, which means that you can edit it, and all the content is dual-licensed under both the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License as well as the GNU Free Documentation License. Before you contribute, you may wish to read through some of our Help pages, and bear in mind that we do things quite differently from other wikis. In particular we have strict layout conventions and inclusion criteria. Learn how to start a page, how to edit entries, experiment in the sandbox and visit our Community Portal to see how you can participate in the development of Wiktionary. , Word of the day for August 21 crux n

1. The basic, central, or essential point or feature.
2. The critical or transitional moment or issue, a turning point.

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Latin: a A b B c C d D e E f F g G h H i I j J k K l L m M n N o O p P q Q r R s S t T u U v V w W x X y Y z Z Accented: à-ç è-ý À-Ü Āā-Řř Śś-Žž Greek: Α-Κ Λ-Σ Τ-Ω α-θ ι-ρ σ-ω Ἀἀ-Ῥῥ Cyrillic: А-Н О-Я а-б в-г д-з и-к л-м н-о п р-с т-ц ч-я(-ә) Armenian: Ա-դ ե-ճ մ-ֆ Hebrew: ‏‏א-ו‎ ז-ל‎ מ-צ‎ ק-ת‎ Arabic: ‏‏ا-ب‎ ت-س‎ ش-م‎ ن-ی‎ Khmer: ក – ឱ Japanese: ぁ-げ こ-ぱ ひ-ケ コ-ヶ Han Characters: 一 促 冱 卙 哪 圱 天 存 崃 弿 愷 捇 新 杁 Korean: ㄱ 가 나 다 라 마 바 사 아 자 차 카 타 파 하

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A professional association (also called a professional body, 'professional organization, professional association or professional society) is a non-profit organization seeking to further a particular profession, the interests of individuals engaged in that profession, and the public interest.

The roles of these professional associations have been variously defined: "A group of people in a learned occupation who are entrusted with maintaining control or oversight of the legitimate practice of the occupation;" also a body acting "to safeguard the public interest;" organizations which "represent the interest of the professional practitioners," and so "act to maintain their own privileged and powerful position as a controlling body."

Such bodies generally strive to achieve a balance between these two often conflicting mandates. Though professional bodies often act to protect the public by maintaining and enforcing standards of training and ethics in their profession, they often also act like a cartel or a labor union (trade union) for the members of the profession, though this description is commonly rejected by the body concerned.

Therefore, in certain dispute situations the balance between these two aims may get tipped more in favor of protecting and defending the professionals than in protecting the public. An example can be used to illustrate this. In a dispute between a lawyer and his/her client or between a patient and his/her doctor, the Law Society of England and Wales or the General Medical Council will inevitably find itself plunged into a conflict of interest in (a) its wish to defend the interests of the client, while also (b) wishing to defend the interests, status and privileges of the professional. It is clearly a tough call for it do both.

Many professional bodies are involved in the development and monitoring of professional educational programs, and the updating of skills, and thus perform professional certification to indicate that a person possesses qualifications in the subject area. Sometimes membership of a professional body is synonymous with certification, though not always. Membership of a professional body, as a legal requirement, can in some professions form the primary formal basis for gaining entry to and setting up practice within the profession; see licensure.

Many professional bodies also act as learned societies for the academic disciplines underlying their professions.