Chain

How to spell chain

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce chain

What does chain mean?

1. nounA connected series of metal links, or by extension any connected sequence of things.
2. verbTo fasten, restrain, or connect something using a chain or as if with a chain.

Chain in a sentence

• noun

  The heavy chain secured the gate against the wind.

• verb

  The staff chain the bicycles to the railing every evening.

• noun

  A long chain of supermarkets now dominates the high street.

• verb

  Protesters tried to chain themselves to the factory gates.

Where does chain come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin catena, which simply meant a chain, that is, a series of connected metal links used for fastening or binding. The Latin form passed into Old French as chaeine or chaine, losing its hard middle sounds along the way, and Middle English borrowed it during the 1200s, eventually settling on the spelling we use today. The same Latin catena survives in the more learned English word 'concatenate', meaning to link things together in a series, which is a useful reminder of the shared origin. Over the centuries the meaning stretched well beyond literal metalwork to cover any connected sequence, giving us a chain of events, a chain of shops, and a chain of command. The 'ch' spelling reflects the French route into English rather than the original Latin hard 'c', which is why the word looks softer than its ancestor catena.

How the word is built

• chain (from Latin catena: a fastening of linked rings)