missing link
a hypothetical form of animal assumed to have constituted a connecting link between the anthropoid apes and humans, identified by some authorities as constituting the genus Australopithecus.
something lacking for the completion of a series or sequence: It’s tricky to find the missing link between children’s books and adult fiction.
Origin of missing link
1Words Nearby missing link
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use missing link in a sentence
So the idea of a missing link between snakes and their lizard ancestors is hardly surprising.
This four-legged snake fossil was probably a skinny lizard | Kate Baggaley | November 19, 2021 | Popular-ScienceYou might think of it as the missing link between ancient techniques and modern digital cryptography.
“Help me find one of the firefighters who helped save my life,” he captioned posts on Instagram and Twitter this week, hoping the power of the internet might finally provide the missing link.
Who Is He? Photographer Hunts for His 9/11 ‘Guardian Angel’ | Rachel Olding | September 10, 2021 | The Daily BeastHer father remains the missing link, the mislaid brick that would make her foundation sturdier and safer.
What happens to a family when a father goes to prison | Allyson Hobbs | June 25, 2021 | Washington PostIn TOI-178, all planets except the first pair up with their neighbors to form a “chain” of resonances—a structure that actually let the astronomers discover one of the planets when they went to look for a missing link.
These 6 exoplanets somehow orbit their star in perfect rhythm | Charlie Wood | January 27, 2021 | Popular-Science
MIT Professor Eric Alm thinks that sewers are the missing link to tracking public health.
The Secret to Tracking Ebola, MERS, and Flu? Sewers | Wudan Yan | November 29, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTFor Hockney to have the missing link presented to him there in his atelier was a real thrill for him.
He sees fatherhood as the missing link, the key to full happiness.
The exhibit was intended as an example of the "missing link" between the orangutan and white man.
Who knew that Anna Maria Alberghetti was the missing link in your life?
"The missing link," added the nephew, with the joyous certainty of one about to negotiate a loan.
A Drake by George! | John TrevenaHaeckel admits that the belief that this is the missing link is strongly combatted by some distinguished scientists.
The Other Side of Evolution | Alexander PattersonMother seems to be the missing link that connects me with Pittsburg and everything else.
The Castaways of Pete's Patch | Carroll Watson RankinThere is no missing link to the chain that connects the first and lowest life to the last and the highest.
The Kempton-Wace Letters | Jack LondonThe expression, "the missing link," is nowhere used by Darwin—that was a creation of one of his critics.
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 12 | Elbert Hubbard
British Dictionary definitions for missing link
the missing link (sometimes capitals) a hypothetical extinct animal or animal group, formerly thought to be intermediate between the anthropoid apes and man
any missing section or part in an otherwise complete series
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for missing link
A supposed animal midway in evolution between apes and humans. The term is based on a misunderstanding about the theory of evolution, which does not state that humans are descended from apes, but rather maintains that both humans and apes descended from a common ancestor. Modern evolutionary scientists do not search for a “missing link.”
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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