ligament

English

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin ligāmentum, from ligō (“tie, bind”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɪɡəmənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

ligament (plural ligaments)

1. (anatomy) A band of strong tissue that connects bones to other bones.
2. (figuratively) That which binds or acts as a ligament.
   • Paraphrase of Daniel Webster, from his oration on Justice Joseph Story

     Justice is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together.

See also

• tendon

Derived terms

• ligamental
• ligamentary
• ligamentous

Translations

band of strong tissue that holds the bones of an animal in position

• Arabic: رِبَاط‏‎ (ar) m (ribāṭ)

  Egyptian Arabic: رباط‏‎ m (rubāṭ)

• Belarusian: звязка f (zvjázka)
• Bengali: লিগামেন্ট (ligamenţ)
• Catalan: lligament (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 韌帶 (zh), 韧带 (zh) (rèndài)

• Czech: vaz (cs) m
• Finnish: nivelside
• French: ligament (fr) m
• German: Band (de) n
• Hindi: स्नायु (hi) (snāyu), लिगामेन्ट (ligāmenṭ)
• Hungarian: ínszalag (hu)
• Icelandic: liðband (is) n, band n

• Italian: legamento (it) m
• Japanese: 靭帯 (じんたい, jintai), 靱帯 (じんたい, jintai)
• Korean: 인대 (ko) (indae) (靭帶 (ko))
• Maori: nape
• Polish: więzadło (pl) f
• Portuguese: ligamento (pt) m
• Russian: свя́зка (ru) f (svjázka)
• Spanish: ligamento (es) m
• Swedish: ligament (sv) n
• Tagalog: gatil
• Ukrainian: зв'язка f (zv'jázka)
• Vietnamese: dây chằng
• Welsh: gewyn m

Anagrams

• tegminal

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French

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin ligāmentum, from ligō (“tie, bind”). Cf. also liement, possibly an inherited doublet.

Noun

ligament m (plural ligaments)

1. ligament

Related terms

• lier

Further reading

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