session

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A meeting of a legislative or judicial body for the purpose of transacting business.
• noun A series of such meetings.
• noun The term or duration of time that is taken by such a series of meetings.
• noun The part of a year or of a day during which a school holds classes.
• noun A period of time devoted to a specific activity.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of sitting, or the state of being seated: now rare except in the specific theological sense of Christ's sitting or enthronement at the right hand of God the Father. Also assession.
• noun The sitting together of a body of individuals for the transaction of business; the sitting of a court, academic body, council, legislature, etc., or the actual assembly of the members of these or any similar body for the transaction of business: as, the court is now in session (that is, the members are assembled for business).
• noun The time, space, or term during which a court, council, legislature, or the like meets daily for business, or transacts business regularly without breaking up.
• noun plural In law, a sitting of justices in court, originally, as in England, upon commission: as, the sessions of oyer and terminer. See oyer.
• noun Eccles., the lowest court of the Presbyterian Church, composed of the pastor and ruling or lay elders of the local church.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun Archaic The act of sitting, or the state of being seated.
• noun The actual sitting of a court, council, legislature, etc., or the actual assembly of the members of such a body, for the transaction of business.
• noun Hence, also, the time, period, or term during which a court, council, legislature, etc., meets daily for business; or, the space of time between the first meeting and the prorogation or adjournment; thus, a session of Parliaments is opened with a speech from the throne, and closed by prorogation. The session of a judicial court is called a term.
• noun the lowest court in the Presbyterian Church, composed of the pastor and a body of elders elected by the members of a particular church, and having the care of matters pertaining to the religious interests of that church, as the admission and dismission of members, discipline, etc.
• noun the supreme civil court of Scotland.
• noun (Eng.Law) See under Quarter.
• noun [Eng.] sittings held by justices of the peace.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A period devoted to a particular activity.
• noun A meeting of a council, court, or legislative body to conduct its business.
• noun computing The sequence of interactions between client and server, or between user and system; the period during which a user is logged in or connected.
• noun cricket Any of the three scheduled two hour playing sessions, from the start of play to lunch, from lunch to tea and from tea to the close of play.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the time during which a school holds classes
• noun a meeting devoted to a particular activity
• noun a meeting for execution of a group's functions
• noun a meeting of spiritualists