To link means to connect two or more things together. When you link paper clips into a chain, you're joining them so they hold together. When a teacher links ideas in a lesson, she's showing how they relate to each other. Scientists link causes to effects, detectives link clues to solve mysteries, and writers link sentences with words like “however” and “therefore.”

You can still see this meaning when people talk about links in a chain, or the missing link in an argument (a connection that would make everything make sense).

A link can also be a noun: the actual connection itself. On the internet, a link is clickable text or an image that takes you to another webpage. When you click a link, you're following a connection someone created between two pieces of information. Scientists might discover a link between eating vegetables and staying healthy. A DNA test might reveal a genetic link between two people.

Related words include linkage (a system of links) and hyperlink (the full technical term for a web link).