ligature

American  

[lig-uh-cher, -choor] / ˈlɪg ə tʃər, -ˌtʃʊər /

noun

1. the act of binding or tying up.

   The ligature of the artery was done with skill.

2. anything that serves for binding or tying up, as a band, bandage, or cord.

3. a tie or bond.

   the ligature of mutual need that bound them together.

4. Printing, Orthography. a stroke or bar connecting two letters.

5. Printing. a character or type combining two or more letters, as fl and æ.

6. Music.

   1. a slur.

   2. a group of notes connected by a slur.

   3. a metal band for securing the reed of a clarinet or saxophone to the mouthpiece.

7. Surgery. a thread or wire for constriction of blood vessels or for removing tumors by strangulation.

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verb (used with object)

• ligatures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• ligatured,
  past participle,  past
• ligaturing
  present participle

1. to bind with a ligature; tie up; ligate.

ligature British  

/ ˈlɪɡətʃə, -ˌtʃʊə /

noun

1. the act of binding or tying up

2. something used to bind

3. a link, bond, or tie

4. surgery a thread or wire for tying around a vessel, duct, etc, as for constricting the flow of blood to a part

5. printing a character of two or more joined letters, such as, fl, ffi, ffl

6. music

   1. a slur or the group of notes connected by it

   2. (in plainsong notation) a symbol indicating two or more notes grouped together

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verb

1. (tr) to bind with a ligature; ligate

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unligatured
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• ligaturing
  present
• ligatured
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• ligature
  simple
• ligatures
  simple
• have ligatured
  perfect
• has ligatured
  perfect
• am ligaturing
  progressive
• are ligaturing
  progressive
• is ligaturing
  progressive
• have been ligaturing
  perfect progressive
• has been ligaturing
  perfect progressive

Past

• ligatured
  simple
• had ligatured
  perfect
• was ligaturing
  progressive
• were ligaturing
  progressive
• had been ligaturing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will ligature
  simple
• will have ligatured
  perfect
• will be ligaturing
  progressive
• will have been ligaturing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of ligature

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English word from Late Latin word ligātūra. See ligate, -ure

Explanation

Ligature is when two things are tied or stitched together, and it's also the thread or cord that's used to do the binding. If you hit your head and need stitches, you'll go to the emergency room for ligature. Doctors and nurses are all well-trained in ligature (since they are always stiching people up), but they are not the only people familiar with ligature. When a robber ties up victims before robbing a store, the rope used to tie their hands is also a ligature, and when a musician connects two notes with a slur — singing or playing them as one syllable — that's a ligature too. The word comes from the Latin root ligatura, "a band," from ligare, "to bind."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ligature ligatures ligatured ligaturing

A ligature cutter was locked in a box and no one knew the combination to unlock it.

From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2025

Instead of the classic single ligature, they used a triple ligature approach on the upper left molar of male mice.

From Science Daily ● May 21, 2024

But it took 34 years of scientific advancement to link microscopic fibers found on the boy’s shirt to a ligature that investigators located at the couple’s home, a sheriff said.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 11, 2024

Another challenge in collecting data: Many of these deaths are misclassified as suicide because the subjects are found with a ligature, Rogg said.

From Fox News ● Sep. 2, 2021

Every time he grouped notes together with a ligature, he meant that those notes should be shorter than the others.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

DNA on the gum was consistent with DNA found on the ligatures and Weaver’s body, according to the charging documents.

From Seattle Times ● May 4, 2024

Working on ligatures which will hopefully roll out tomorrow with an option to bypass song cache so the poster will actually update without the ‘?’

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2020

The group estimates there are 350,000 women in Madagascar who can only get family-planning services like implants and tubal ligatures from its mobile clinics.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 9, 2018

They flaunt their learning but revel in the loose-fitting ligatures of speech and thought.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 21, 2018

The system he used, while not as flexible or sophisticated as the one used today, relied on the grouping together of notes with horizontal bars called ligatures.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Their concentrated, ligatured and rigorous application had a jarring effect: In order to truly behold the work, we had to step away from it, to distance ourselves.

From New York Times ● Mar. 23, 2022

Should either of these stand out with extra prominence from the others, it should be picked up with a pair of forceps, and ligatured with either carbolized gut or silk.

From Diseases of the Horse's Foot by Harry Caulton Reeks

Another drake was castrated on August 8, 1909: only the left testis was removed, the other being ligatured.

From Hormones and Heredity by J. T. Cunningham

If this cannot be done, the main artery of the limb must be exposed by dissection at the most accessible point between the wound and the heart, and there ligatured.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 7 "Gyantse" to "Hallel" by Various

Romic, rō′mik, n. a phonetic notation devised by Henry Sweet, based upon the original Roman values of the letters, supplemented by turned and ligatured letters and diagraphs—in part a recasting of Ellis's Glossic.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various

The experiments of Ancel and Bouin were carried out on rabbits seven to eight weeks old, and consisted in removing one testis, and ligaturing the vas deferens of the other.

From Hormones and Heredity by J. T. Cunningham

Joly, namely, that of ligaturing one of the digital arteries on each affected foot.

From Diseases of the Horse's Foot by Harry Caulton Reeks