ligament

From Middle English ligament, from Latin ligāmentum, from ligō (“tie, bind”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɪɡəmənt/

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ligament (plural ligaments)

1. (anatomy) A band of strong tissue that connects bones to other bones.
   • 1846, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Christmas Banquet”, in Mosses from an Old Manse:

     It so chanced that at this juncture the decayed ligaments of the skeleton gave way, and the dry bones fell together in a heap, thus causing the dusty wreath of cypress to drop upon the table.

2. (figurative) 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.

• ligamental
• ligamentary
• ligamentous

• sinew
• tendon

• tegminal

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

• IPA^(key): /li.ɡa.mɑ̃/

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ligament m (plural ligaments)

1. ligament

• lier

• “ligament”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• lygament

Borrowed from Latin ligāmentum.

• IPA^(key): /liˈɡaːmɛnt/, /ˈliɡamɛnt/

ligament (plural ligamentes)

1. A ligament or similar connecting tissue (e.g. a tendon)
2. (rare) That which binds.

• English: ligament

• “ligā̆ment, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Borrowed from French ligament, itself a borrowing from Latin ligāmentum, from ligō (“tie, bind”). Compare legământ, an inherited doublet.

• IPA^(key): [li.ɡaˈment]

ligament n (plural ligamente)

1. ligament