Linkage

How to spell linkage

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce linkage

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does linkage mean?

1. nounA connection or relationship between two or more things, or the act of joining them.
2. nounA system of connected rods or bars that transmits motion within a machine.
3. nounThe tendency of genes located close together on a chromosome to be inherited as a unit.

Linkage in a sentence

• The report examined the linkage between diet and heart disease.

• A worn linkage caused the gear lever to feel loose.

• The study used linkage to map the position of the gene on the chromosome.

• The software creates a direct linkage between the spreadsheet and the database.

• The mechanic adjusted the steering linkage until the wheels tracked straight.

• Genetic linkage explains why the two traits so often appear in the same individual.

Where does linkage come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The base word 'link' came into Middle English from the Old Norse hlekkr, which meant a ring of a chain, and it is closely related to the older Germanic words for bending and joining; the underlying idea was a single loop that could be joined to others to form a chain. To this English added the suffix -age, which arrived through Old French from the Latin -aticum and is used to turn a word into an abstract noun for a process, a collective system, or a charge (as in 'baggage', 'storage', and 'postage'). 'Linkage' was assembled in English in the early nineteenth century to name the act of linking things together or the assembly of connected parts, especially the jointed bars in a machine. From there it spread into chemistry for a chemical bond and into genetics for the tendency of genes that sit near one another to be inherited together. The spelling keeps the silent-looking 'k' of 'link' and simply tacks on -age, so the trap is mostly remembering it is -age and not -idge or -edge.

How the word is built

• link (a connecting ring or join, from Old Norse hlekkr)
• -age (noun suffix denoting a process, state, or system)