Alignment

n. act of forming into a line, act of straightening; positioning, arrangement; placement and direction of text or graphics in relation to the document margin (Computers, Printing)

Alignment is the adjustment of an object in relation with other objects, or a static orientation of some object or set of objects in relation to others. An alignment of megaliths: see stone row.An alignment (archaeology) in archaeology is a secondary or circumstantial form of evidence used to associate features such as postholes Alignment (role-playing games) refers to the moral and ethical perspective of the player characters, non-player characters, monsters, and societies in the game. This meaning applies in particular to alignment in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. It has a more specific meaning in some disciplines:Typographic alignment, in typesetting, lines of text or images can be aligned left, right, centered or justified. Sequence alignment shows similarities between protein or nucleic acid sequences (also in bioinformatics).Structural alignment presents similarities in 3D structure of protein molecules.Strategic alignment refers to business structure and information technology fit in relation to business strategy and external environment. When alignment is attained firm gains competitive advantage and increase performance. Strategic information systems belong in this category.Wheel alignment in an automobile means adjustment of the camber, castor, and/or toe to improve performance and maintain proper tire wear characteristics of the carData structure alignment, in computer programming, refers to arranging data in memoryParallel text alignment, in artificial intelligenceOntology alignment, in heterogeneous knowledge bases, the expression of the correspondences between two ontologies is called ontology alignmentBody alignment, in sport and dance, the proper placement of the bones so that the muscles do less workMorphosyntactic alignment, in linguistics, the properties determining the grammatical relationship between verbal arguments of various kindsFibre alignment, in optoelectronics, to connect two Optical fibers to each otherShaft alignment, in mechanical engineering, to adjust two coupled rotating machines
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Noun
1. an organization of people (or countries) involved in a pact or treaty
(synonym) alliance, coalition, alinement
(antonym) nonalignment, nonalinement
(hypernym) organization, organisation
(hyponym) combination
(member-meronym) ally
(derivation) align, array
2. the spatial property possessed by an arrangement or position of things in a straight line or in parallel lines
(hypernym) placement, arrangement
(hyponym) true
(derivation) align, aline, line up, adjust
3. (astronomy) apparent meeting or passing of two or more celestial bodies in the same degree of the zodiac
(synonym) conjunction
(hypernym) meeting, encounter
(hyponym) inferior conjunction
(classification) astronomy, uranology
4. the act of adjusting or aligning the parts of a device in relation to each other
(hypernym) adjustment, registration, readjustment
(hyponym) camber
(derivation) align

(n.)
The ground-plan of a railway or other road, in distinction from the grades or profile.
  

(n.)
The act of adjusting to a line; arrangement in a line or lines; the state of being so adjusted; a formation in a straight line; also, the line of adjustment; esp., an imaginary line to regulate the formation of troops or of a squadron.
  

act of moving a mask or reticle to match up  alignment marks. Alignment insures that a new pattern being added to a  wafer is aligned to the previous pattern or patterns on the wafer.