party

n.

1. A social affair

   at-home, tea, luncheon, dinner party, dinner, cocktail hour, surprise party, house party, social, bee, reception, banquet, feast, affair, gathering, soirée, function, gala, fete, ball, recreation, fun, jollification, cheer, beguilement, accommodation, amusement, entertainment, festive occasion, carousal, diversion, performance, high tea, kaffee-klatsch, binge*, spree*, toot*, riot*, splurge*, tear*, shindig*, blowout*, bash*. *

2. A group of people

   multitude, mob, company; see crowd 1, gathering.

3. A political organization

   organized group, body, electorate, combine, combination, bloc, ring, junta, partisans, cabal; see also faction 1.

   Well-known political parties include --- historical: Guelph, Ghibelline, Jacobin, Girondist, Yorkist, Lancastrian, Puritan, Roundhead, Politique, Tory, Whig, Know-Nothing, Grangers, Greenback, People's, Mugwump, Prohibition, Bull Moose, Farmer-Labor, Progressive, Populist; twentieth-century: Republican, GOP*, Democratic, Libertarian, Liberal, Conservative, Labour, Popular Front, National Socialist, Nazi, Fascist, Falangist, Congress Party, Kuomintang, Comintern, Third International, Socialist, Communist, Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, Independent, Peace and Freedom, Black Panther, American Independent, Townsendite, Epic.

4. An individual or group involved in legal proceedings

   litigant, participant, contractor, agent, plotter, confederate, cojuror, compurgator; see also defendant.

   Types of parties, sense 4, include: plaintiff, complainant, defendant, purchaser, buyer, seller, lessor, lessee, employer, employee, licenser, licensee.

5. *A specified but unnamed individual

   party of the first part, party of the second part, etc.; someone, individual; see person 1, somebody.