aligned

1. 1
   adjective

   Placed, arranged, or formed so as to sit in correct position or in a straight line with something.

   Like train tracks that must meet exactly so the wheels pass over the join without a bump.

   The surveyor checked that the markers were aligned along the boundary.

   The two mirrors must stay perfectly aligned for the laser to reach its target.

   Oppositemisaligned

   Note

   Here the participle has settled into a describing word: it says where something sits, not what someone did to it. The reference point usually follows with (aligned with the curb). It also compares freely, as in more aligned and most aligned, so it can describe a degree of fit rather than only a yes-or-no state. That gradability carries straight over into the sense of shared purpose.

2. 2
   adjectivefiguratively

   United with another person or group, working toward a shared goal.

   Like rowers matching every stroke so the boat moves as one.

   The smaller nations stayed closely aligned with their powerful neighbor throughout the conflict.

   Marketing and sales finally became aligned on a single strategy.

   Similarallied, united

   Oppositeopposed

   Note

   The line here is a line of purpose: the image of things set true to one another, carried over to people, groups and nations facing the same way. Recent usage stretches it to machines. The Future of Life Institute's open letter "Pause Giant AI Experiments" (2023) asks for AI systems that are safe, interpretable, robust, aligned and trustworthy. That is a quality demanded of the system itself, not a partnership between two sides.

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of align.

   The carpenter aligned the boards and nailed them into place.

   They aligned their objectives before launching the project.

   Note

   One spelling serves both the past tense and the participle, so they aligned and they have aligned share a form. The verb behind it does a lot of work: troops aligned (fell into line), a carpenter aligned boards, a country aligned itself with an ally, a programmer aligned data to the memory's word size, a biologist aligned DNA sequences by their similar regions. With be it forms the passive, which shades into the adjective of position.

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