link

A link is anything that connects one thing to another. It might be a metal piece in a chain, a way to open another page on the internet, or a real connection between people, ideas, or events. You might link arms with a friend while crossing a busy street, or read about a surprising link between two historical events. The word works both as a noun, for the connection itself, and as a verb, for the act of joining things together.

The word "link" describes a connection or relationship between two or more things. You can meet it in the physical world, in technology, in human relationships, and in the way ideas fit together. Think of the links in a bicycle chain: each small piece joins with the next, and together they help the bike move.

As a noun, a link can mean one part of a chain or any clear connection. It may refer to something physical, like "the links of a chain," or to an idea, such as a "strong family link." In an investigation, people may talk about a missing link in the evidence. In study or research, someone may notice a link between two subjects that first seemed unrelated.

As a verb, "to link" means to join things together. You might link your phone to your car, link one idea to another in an essay, or link pieces of evidence to build a clearer story. In the digital world, a hyperlink, often simply called a "link," takes you from one webpage to another and helps form the web of connected pages we use every day.

Historically, "link" was also a unit of measurement used by land surveyors, equal to one-hundredth of a surveyor's chain. That meaning is rare now, but it still fits the same core idea of things being joined in a clear, measurable way. Whether it points to a metal ring, an online path, or a relationship between people or ideas, "link" is about bringing separate parts together.