liaison

Borrowed from French liaison (“binding”), from Latin ligātiō (stem ligation-) (English ligation), derived from ligō (“I bind”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyǵ- (“to bind”). Doublet of ligation.

• Rhymes: -eɪzən

• (UK) IPA^(key): /liˈeɪ.zɒn/, /liˈeɪ.zən/, (nonstandard) /laɪˈeɪ.zɒn/, /laɪˈeɪ.zən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /li.ˈeɪ.zɑn/, /li.ˈeɪ.sɑn/, (nonstandard) /ˈlaɪ.ə.sən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

liaison (countable and uncountable, plural liaisons)

1. Communication between two parties or groups.
2. Co-operation, working together.
3. A relayer of information between two forces in an army or during war.
4. A tryst, romantic meeting.
5. (figuratively) An illicit sexual relationship or affair.
6. (linguistics) The phonological fusion of two consecutive words and the manner in which this occurs, for example intrusion, consonant-vowel linking, etc. In the context of some languages, such as French, liaison can refer specifically to a normally silent final consonant, being pronounced when the next word begins with a vowel, and can often also include the intrusion of a "t" in certain fixed chunks of language such as the question form "pense-t-il".

• liaise
• ligation

liaison (third-person singular simple present liaisons, present participle liaisoning, simple past and past participle liaisoned)

1. (proscribed) To liaise.

• isolani

From Old French, from Late Latin ligātiō, ligātiōnem, derived from Latin ligō (“bind”), or formed from lier +‎ -aison based on the Latin word. Compare also Old Occitan liazó, liazon.

• IPA^(key): /ljɛ.zɔ̃/

• Audio (FR)

  (file)

• Audio (Paris)

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liaison f (plural liaisons)

1. link, bond
2. friendship
3. liaison (romantic encounter)
4. liaison (communication)
5. (linguistics) liaison (phonological phenomenon)
6. (chemistry) bond

• lier

• “liaison” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).