connection
Pluralconnections
- 1A link or relationship between facts, ideas, events or things, through which one is associated with another or has an effect on it.
Researchers are studying the connection between air pollution and childhood asthma.
The essay draws connections between the war and the poet's later work.
UsageUse between two things, or with one: the connection between diet and health. In connection with means about: questioned in connection with a theft.
Similarlink, relationship, association, relation
- 2An established link for communication or transportation between places.
Engineers restored the connection after the undersea cable was repaired.
A direct rail connection links the two cities in under an hour.
UsageOften an internet, phone or rail connection; you lose the connection when it drops.
Similarlink, line, service, route, channel
Note
Both halves of the definition live in everyday talk. On a call you lose the connection when lightning or a bad line cuts it, and computers are linked by a network connection. On the transport side, a rail or ferry connection links two places, unlike a scheduled transfer, which is a change between vehicles.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Lightning can damage telephone equipment and interrupt a call. telstra.com.au
- Computers can be linked through network connections. en.wikipedia.org
- 3The rapport felt between two or more people who understand each other and find it easy to communicate.
She sensed a deep connection with her new colleague almost immediately.
The teacher built a genuine connection with every student in the class.
UsageYou feel or make a connection with someone, or there is one between people.
Similarrapport, bond, affinity, chemistry, understanding
Oppositedisconnect, estrangement, alienation, distance
- 4The point where two or more things are joined together.
The connection between the hose and the tap had come loose.
Inspectors found a weak connection where the two steel beams met.
Similarjoint, junction, coupling, fitting, union
Note
The physical sense: the joint where a hose meets a tap, a wire meets a terminal or a pipe meets a boiler. Plumbers and electricians speak of a loose, tight or faulty connection, and a leak or fault is often traced to one. It is counted like any object, so each connection in a circuit can be checked separately.
Doctors suspect a connection between the two illnesses.
He denied any connection with the company.
- 5A person related to you through family or business ties.
He landed the contract thanks to a well-placed connection.
Several of her business connections attended the wedding.
UsageOften said as connections: she has connections. One person is a connection at a company or bank.
Similarcontact, associate, acquaintance, relative, relation
- 6The act of joining or linking two or more things together.
The connection of the printer to the network failed twice before it worked.
Proper connection of the cables is essential before powering on the system.
UsageUsually of what is joined, to where: the connection of the printer to the network.
Similarlinking, joining, attachment, linkage, hookup
Oppositedisconnection, separation, detachment, severance
Note
This is the root idea of the word, and the Latin behind it is vivid: co- "together" plus nectō "I bind". To connect is, at root, to bind together.
- 7A transfer from one scheduled vehicle to another, such as a train or plane, during a journey.
Passengers rushed across the terminal to make their connection.
A tight connection left no room for delays between the two trains.
UsageYou make or miss a connection; a tight connection leaves little time.
Note
Paul Bigland, writing in RAIL magazine in 2022, praises station staff who help customers with tight connections. The word names the transfer itself, so a connection can be missed even when every train runs: the bus was late, and the next train was six hours off.
- 8
Less common meanings
- 9Coherence, or the quality of parts holding together without gaps or breaks.
The last chapters read like a pile of loose notes, with little order or connection, as if the author had run out of time.
Good writing depends on connection between one paragraph and the next.
Similarcoherence, cohesion, continuity, unity, consistency
Oppositeincoherence, disjointedness, discontinuity, inconsistency
- 10A supplier or dealer from whom someone buys illegal drugs.
Police followed the addict for days, hoping he would lead them to his connection.
When her usual connection left town, she had to buy drugs from strangers she did not trust.
Similardealer, supplier, source, plug, pusher
Note
Drug-world slang for the person who supplies. In Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957), Old Bull Lee haunts "connection bars" in New Orleans among shady characters. The word carries that world with it, so outside such talk it can be misheard. The unmarked word for someone you know through work or family remains a family or business contact.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road, first published in 1957. en.wikipedia.org
- The novel describes Old Bull Lee haunting “connection bars” in New Orleans among shady characters; the quoted words occur in the narration. idleguy.com
- 11Sexual intercourse, as a discreet term in older formal and scholarly writing.
The exact nature of the relations between the boy-wife and his protector are doubtful; they certainly have connection, but the natives repudiate with horror and disgust the idea of sodomy.
1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of SexSimilarintercourse, relations, union, congress, intimacy
Note
A discreet word from older scholarly writing about sex. In his Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Havelock Ellis writes that two people "certainly have connection". George Ryley Scott's Phallic Worship (1941) spells it connexion. It appears without an article, in the construction have connection with. Read in such texts, it should not be mistaken for understanding between people.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Havelock Ellis uses the exact words “certainly have connection” about sexual relations in Studies in the Psychology of Sex. gutenberg.org
- George Ryley Scott wrote Phallic Worship, first published in 1941. en.wikipedia.org
- Scott's book uses the spelling connexion for sexual intercourse, without an article, in the construction have connexion with. iapsop.com
- 12A Methodist denomination considered as a single whole, rather than its individual churches, circuits, districts, and conferences.
- 13A collection of sets that includes the empty set, every one-element set for any element in its sets, and the union of any of its overlapping member sets.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of connection apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
From Middle English conneccioun, from Latin connexionem ("a binding together"), based on connectō/cōnectō ("I bind together"), a compound of co- ("together") and nectō ("I bind"). In mid-18th-century American English the spelling shifted from connexion to connection (connect + -ion), making connexion British and dated while connection became standard internationally.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Connection derives from Middle English conneccioun. en.wiktionary.org
- Its Latin source is connexionem, meaning a binding together, derived from connectō. en.wiktionary.org
- Connectō and cōnectō are alternative spellings of a Latin verb meaning I bind together. en.wiktionary.org
- The Latin verb combines co-, meaning together, and nectō, meaning I bind. en.wiktionary.org
- American English shifted from connexion toward connection in the mid-18th century; connection corresponds to connect + -ion. en.wiktionary.org