Ligament

How to spell ligament

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce ligament

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ligament mean?

1. nounA short band of tough, flexible tissue that connects two bones or holds a joint together.

Ligament in a sentence

• The footballer tore a ligament in his knee during training.

• A stretched ligament in her ankle kept her off her feet for weeks.

Where does ligament come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin ligamentum, meaning 'a band' or 'a tie', which was formed from the verb ligare, 'to bind or fasten together'. The original sense was simply anything used for binding, before anatomists narrowed it to the tough bands of fibrous tissue that bind one bone to another at a joint. English adopted it during the late fourteenth century, taking it directly from Latin in the vocabulary of early medicine. The same ligare root quietly binds together a family of everyday words, including 'ligature' (a thing that ties), 'oblige' (literally to bind someone by a promise), and even 'ally' and 'rely'. Remembering that ligare means 'to bind' helps fix the spelling: the middle is liga, not 'lega' or 'liger', because the band ties the bones in place.

How the word is built

• liga- (from Latin ligare: to bind, tie)
• -ment (noun suffix denoting result or means)