linking

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of link.

   The new road is linking two towns that were once far apart.

   Linking the survey results to the sales data showed the trend.

   Note

   Every sense of the verb link carries over into this form, including the newer ones. A page can be linking to another, a compiler linking compiled objects into one executable, and a study linking two trends by showing a correlation. With be it builds the progressive (the manager is linking the sections). Standing alone as a gerund it works as a noun (Linking the data took weeks), close to the noun for connection.

2. 2
   adjective

   Acting as a connecting link between two or more separate things or parts.

   The editor inserted a linking clause to connect the two arguments smoothly.

   A linking corridor runs between the old wing and the new extension.

   Similarbridging

   Oppositeseparating, dividing

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The act of connecting things, or the state of being connected together.

   The linking of the two databases eliminated thousands of duplicate records.

   Poor linking between the chapters made the report hard to follow.

   Similarconnection, integration, joining

   Oppositeseparation, disconnection

   Note

   A noun that can be counted as well as massed. Its plural, linkings, names separate individual connections rather than the general process. Phonologists use it this way: Douglas Pulleyblank's Tone in Lexical Phonology (1986) speaks of multiple linkings of tones to a single tone-bearing unit. Linkage means much the same, but linking keeps a sense of the act being carried out.

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