link
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /lɪŋk/
rhymes: -ɪŋk
Forms: form: links
Etymology: From Middle English linke, lenke, from a merger of Old English hlenċe, hlenċa (“ring; chainlink”) and Old Norse *hlenkr, hlekkr (“ring; chain”); both from Proto-Germanic *hlankiz (“ring; bond; fettle; fetter”). Used in English since the 14th century. Related to lank.
Senses: examples: text: The mayor’s assistant serves as the link to the media.
text: The link of brotherhood, by which / One common Maker bound me to the kind.
ref: 1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC:
text: And so by double lynkes enchaynde themselues in louers life
ref: 1573, George Gascoigne, A Hundreth Sundry Flowres:
glosses: A connection between places, people, events, things, or ideas.
examples: text: The third link of the silver chain needs to be resoldered.
text: The weakest link.
glosses: One element of a chain or other connected series.
examples: text: The link on the page points to the sports scores.
glosses: Abbreviation of hyperlink.
examples: text: A by-N-link is composed of N lanes.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: The connection between buses or systems.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: A space comprising one or more disjoint knots.
examples: text: They used formerly to live in caves or huts dug into the side of a bank or "link," and lined with heath or straw.
ref: 2008, Richard John King, A Handbook for Travellers in Kent and Sussex:
qualifier: Sussex
glosses: A thin wild bank of land splitting two cultivated patches and often linking two hills.
examples: text: But know that God is the strongest link.
ref: 2010, James O. Young, My Sheep Know My Voice: anointed poetry, AuthorHouse, page 32:
text: The fuse is the weakest link in the system. As such, the fuse is also the most valuable link in the system.
ref: 2010, William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler, Universal Principles of Design, RockPort, page 262:
text: “[…] This is so that nobody can change the way every link must talk about the formula that I taught to make a real Chain of Universal Love and not a Chain of Love of a group or sect.”
ref: 2010, Stephen Fairweather, The Missing Book of Genesis, AuthorHouse, page 219:
glosses: An individual person or element in a system
examples: text: a link of horsehair
ref: 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:
glosses: Anything doubled and closed like a link of a chain.
glosses: A sausage that is not a patty.
glosses: Any one of the several elementary pieces of a mechanism, such as the fixed frame, or a rod, wheel, mass of confined liquid, etc., by which relative motion of other parts is produced and constrained.
topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Any intermediate rod or piece for transmitting force or motion, especially a short connecting rod with a bearing at each end; specifically (in steam engines) the slotted bar, or connecting piece, to the opposite ends of which the eccentric rods are jointed, and by means of which the movement of the valve is varied, in a link motion.
topics: geography
natural-sciences
surveying
glosses: The length of one joint of Gunter's chain, being the hundredth part of it, or 7.92 inches, the chain being 66 feet in length.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A bond of affinity, or a unit of valence between atoms; applied to a unit of chemical force or attraction.
examples: text: 'Dame Foljambe,' said the old man, 'the march of thy tale is like the course of the Wye, seventeen miles of links and windings down a fair valley five miles long. […]'
ref: 1822, Allan Cunningham, “The King of the Peak”, in Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry, volume 1, page 222:
glosses: The windings of a river; the land along a winding stream.
examples: text: Too much talk on a music-based station can cause listeners who tune in for the music to go elsewhere. […] 'Some people will say “your link has to be 45 seconds long” but I don't do that,' explains the programme controller of Trent FM, Dick Stone.
ref: 2002, Carole Fleming, The Radio Handbook, page 53:
topics: broadcasting
media
glosses: An introductory cue.
Synonyms: sense: connection between things
word: connection
word: band
word: bond
word: link
word: nexus
word: tie
word: vinculum
Hypernyms: word: relation
Hyponyms: word: backlink
word: chain-link
word: dangling link
word: deep link
word: hyperlink
word: missing link
word: permalink
word: sausage link
word: surface link
word: symlink
word: alliance
word: coalition
word: debt
word: dependence
word: duty
word: obligation
word: reliance
Derived terms: a chain is only as strong as its weakest link
airlink
association link
bloodlink
blue link
Brunnian link
cannot-link
causal link
Centrelink
chainlink
clean link
coat link
comm link
commlink
cross-link
cufflink
cuff link
dancing links
datalink
dead link
disintegrating link
downlink
draglink
drawlink
drink link
dynamic-link library
external link
fat link
firm link
forward link
Harbor Link
hard link
Hopf link
hotlink
hot link
inlink
interlink
internal link
linkage
linkback
link-baiting
link-bait
link bait
link bar
link boy
link building
link-dead
link doping
link editor
link exchange
link farm
linkfest
linkful
linkification
linkify
link juice
link-language
link language
linkless
linklike
linklist
linklog
link motion
linkpost
link rat
linkrot
link rot
link spam
linkspan
link state
link time
link topology
linktree
linkup
link-up
link verb
linkware
linkway
link whore
link whoring
linkwork
linky
magic link
magnet link
missing link
multilink
must-link
neurolink
otherlink
outlink
permissive-action link
piped link
pretzel link
quick link
redlink
red link
reverse link
sea link
sleeve-link
slitherlink
snap-link
sneaky link
sock link
soft link
Soul Link
soul link
stronglink
sublink
symbolic link
text link
uplink
videolink
weakest link
weaklink
weak link
weblink
Whitehead link
wikilink
Related terms: word: junction