ligature

ligature

See also: ligaturé

English

Etymology

From Middle English ligature, from Middle French ligature, from Late Latin ligātura, from Latin ligātus, past participle of ligāre (“to tie, bind”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈlɪɡət͡ʃɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

ligature (countable and uncountable, plural ligatures)

Examples of ligatures

1. (uncountable) The act of tying or binding something.
2. (countable) A cord or similar thing used to tie something; especially the thread used in surgery to close a vessel or duct.
   • 2018: "She stalked the Golden State Killer until she died. Some think her work led to the suspect’s arrest." by Eli Rosenberg

     He hid shoelaces or rope under cushions to use as ligatures.

3. A thread or wire used to remove tumours, etc.
4. The state of being bound or stiffened; stiffness.

   the ligature of a joint

5. (countable, typography) A character that visually combines multiple letters, such as æ, œ, ß or ij; also logotype. Sometimes called a typographic ligature.

   Meronym: ligand

6. (countable, music) A group of notes played as a phrase, or the curved line that indicates such a phrase.
7. (music) A curve or line connecting notes; a slur.
8. (countable) A piece used to hold a reed to the mouthpiece on woodwind instruments.
9. Impotence caused by magic or charms.

Derived terms

• ligature point

Related terms

• liaison
• ligate
• ligation

 

Translations

act of tying

Albanian: ligaturë Bulgarian: лигатура f (ligatura) Dutch: ligatuur (nl), verbinding (nl) Finnish: sitominen (fi) Greek: δεσμός (el) m (desmós) Hungarian: lekötés, elkötés, összekötés (hu) Italian: legatura (it) f Latin: ligatura (la) f Norwegian: Bokmål: knytting m Portuguese: ligação (pt) f Romanian: legare (ro) f, legătură (ro) f Russian: лигату́ра (ru) f (ligatúra)

cord or similar used to tie something

Catalan: lligada (ca) f, lligadura (ca) f Dutch: afbinding, band (nl), verbinding (nl) Finnish: ligatuuri (fi) (in surgery); side (fi), sidos (fi) (generally) Plautdietsch: Ombinjsel n Romanian: frânghie (ro) f, șnur (ro) n, sfoară (ro) f, funie (ro) f

typography: character that combines multiple letters

Ancient Greek: ὑφέν f (huphén) Arabic: please add this translation if you can Armenian: կցագիր (hy) (kcʿagir), լիգատուրա (hy) (ligatura) Bengali: যুক্তাক্ষর (bn) (ĵuktakhôrô), যুক্তবর্ণ (ĵuktôbôrṇô) Chinese: Mandarin: 合字 (hézì) Czech: slitek m, ligatura f Danish: ligatur Dutch: ligatuur (nl) Finnish: ligatuuri (fi) French: ligature (fr) f Georgian: ლიგატურა (ligaṭura) German: Ligatur (de) f Greek: λιγκατούρα (el) f (ligkatoúra) Hindi: संयुक्ताक्षर (sãyuktākṣar) Hungarian: ligatúra (hu) Italian: logotipo m, legatura (it) f Japanese: 合字 (ja) (gōji) Korean: 합자 (ko) (hapja) Malayalam: കൂട്ടക്ഷരം (ml) (kūṭṭakṣaraṃ) Norwegian: Bokmål: abbreviatur (no) m Portuguese: ligatura (pt) f Romanian: ligatură (ro) f Russian: лигату́ра (ru) f (ligatúra), вязь (ru) f (vjazʹ) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: лигатура f Latin: ligatura (sh) f Spanish: ligadura (es) f Swedish: ligatur (sv) c Tagalog: pang-angkop Thai: ตัวแฝด (dtuua-fɛ̀ɛt) Welsh: clymlythyren f

music: group of notes played as a musical phrase

Bulgarian: легато (bg) n (legato) Dutch: ligatuur (nl) Finnish: ligatuuri (fi) German: Ligatur (de) f Greek: λιγκατούρα (el) f (ligkatoúra) Hungarian: kötőív Norwegian: Bokmål: abbreviatur (no) m Russian: лигату́ра (ru) f (ligatúra) Serbo-Croatian: ligatura (sh) f Spanish: ligadura (es) f

piece used to hold a reed to the mouthpiece

Finnish: ligatuuri (fi), kiristin

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

French: (please verify) ligature (fr) Latin: (please verify) ligatura (la) Turkish: (please verify) birleştirmeli yazım

Verb

ligature (third-person singular simple present ligatures, present participle ligaturing, simple past and past participle ligatured)

1. (surgery) To ligate; to tie.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for ligature in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)

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French

Etymology

From Middle French ligature, from Late Latin ligātura, from Latin ligātus, past participle of ligō (“tie, bind”). Compare the popular Old French liüre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li.ɡa.tyʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

ligature f (plural ligatures)

1. a tie; the action of tying
2. a binding, notably in horticulture
3. ligature; a character that combines multiple letters; logotype

Derived terms

• ligaturer

Related terms

• lier

Further reading

• “ligature”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• lugerait
• régulait

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Latin

Participle

ligātūre

1. vocative masculine singular of ligātūrus

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Middle English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French ligature, itself borrowed from Late Latin ligātūra. Doublet of lyoure.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /liˈɡaːtiu̯r(ə)/

Noun

ligature (plural ligatures)

1. bandage, dressing
2. (rare) ligament

Descendants

• English: ligature

References

• “ligātūre, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.