The noun "collation" refers to the act of bringing things together and comparing them, the act of collating pages or sheets of a book, or a collection or gathering.

A discussion, light meal, or reading held in benedictine monasteries, often referring to the work "collationes patrum in scetica eremo commorantium" by john cassian.

(ecclesiastical) The presentation of a clergyman to a benefice by a bishop, who has it in his own gift.

(civil law, inheritance) The blending together of property so as to achieve equal division, mainly in the case of inheritance.

(civil law, inheritance, Scotland) An heir's right to combine the whole heritable and movable estates of the deceased into one mass, sharing it equally with others who are of the same degree of kindred.

(ecclesiastical) Presentation to a benefice.

(databases) The specification of how character data should be treated stored and sorted.