define associative property
asÂ·soÂ·ciÂ·aÂ·tive property. The property of addition and multiplication which states that a difference in the grouping of numbers being added or multiplied will not change the result, as long as the order of the numbers stays the same. For example, 3 + (4 + 5) is equal to (3 + 4) + 5. See also commutative property, distributive property. 1  Facebook.