Communication refers to the act or fact of communicating anything; transmission. It commonly describes the concept or state of exchanging data or information between entities, a message; the essential data transferred in an act of communication, and the body of all data transferred to one or both parties during an act of communication, which gives the term a broader and more practical sense than a single short definition would suggest. Depending on context, it can also point to an instance of information transfer; a conversation or discourse, a passageway or opening between two locations; connection, and a connection between two tissues, organs, or cavities, so the category can cover literal uses, related ideas, and more figurative extensions of the same core meaning. Taken together, these meanings present Communication as a flexible theme rather than a narrowly technical label, covering the central idea people usually mean when they use the word while still leaving room for closely related senses that appear in real language. Additional shades of meaning include association; company, participation in Holy Communion, and a trope by which a speaker assumes that his hearer is a partner in his sentiments, and says "we" instead of "I" or "you", which reinforce how the category can stretch across adjacent but still recognizable uses of the same term.
