The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Corporation \Cor`po*ra"tion\ (k[^o]r`p[-o]*r[=a]"sh[u^]n), n.
   [L. corporatio incarnation: cf. F. corporation corporation.]
   A body politic or corporate, formed and authorized by law to
   act as a single person, and endowed by law with the capacity
   of succession; a society having the capacity of transacting
   business as an individual.
   [1913 Webster]

   Note: Corporations are aggregate or sole. Corporations
         aggregate consist of two or more persons united in a
         society, which is preserved by a succession of members,
         either forever or till the corporation is dissolved by
         the power that formed it, by the death of all its
         members, by surrender of its charter or franchises, or
         by forfeiture. Such corporations are the mayor and
         aldermen of cities, the head and fellows of a college,
         the dean and chapter of a cathedral church, the
         stockholders of a bank or insurance company, etc. A
         corporation sole consists of a single person, who is
         made a body corporate and politic, in order to give him
         some legal capacities, and especially that of
         succession, which as a natural person he can not have.
         Kings, bishops, deans, parsons, and vicars, are in
         England sole corporations. A fee will not pass to a
         corporation sole without the word "successors" in the
         grant. There are instances in the United States of a
         minister of a parish seized of parsonage lands in the
         right of his parish, being a corporation sole, as in
         Massachusetts. Corporations are sometimes classified as
         public and private; public being convertible with
         municipal, and private corporations being all
         corporations not municipal.
         [1913 Webster]

   Close corporation. See under Close.
      [1913 Webster]