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''liaison'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250825003001-00-⌔

liaison - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

liaison (countable and uncountable, plural liaisons)

📊 ➺

  • (cooking) A thickening for sauces, typically based on egg yolks.
    • ✤ […] prepare a liaison, or four or five yolks of eggs and some cream […]1
  • Communication between two parties or groups.
  • Cooperation, working together.
  • (military) A relayer of information between two forces in an army or during war.
  • Any person who relays information between two groups or organizations.
    • ✤ Synonyms: go-between, mediator
    • ✤ As a community liaison, I work to make sure the general public knows about our organization’s work.
    • ✤ The 55-year-old, who worked as a nurse liaison for 30 years before opening her clothing boutique in 2014, began streaming fashion shows on Facebook Live featuring herself wearing the clothes, jewelry and accessories she sells.2
  • A tryst; a romantic meeting.
  • (figuratively) An illicit sexual relationship or affair.
    • ✤ ostriches in breeding season are relentlessly promiscuous, with both males and females seeking liaisons with multiple partners.3
    • ✤ Even her sex life is rigidly regulated, the liaisons with her married co-worker, Peter (Michael Esper), unfolding with more efficiency than pleasure.4
  • (phonology) Fusion of two consecutive words and the manner in which this occurs.
    • ✤ Hypernyms: sandhi, intrusion, linking
    • (phonology) The pronunciation of a normally silent final consonant when the next word begins with a vowel.

Verb

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

  • (proscribed) To liaise.

Etymology

Borrowed from French liaison (“binding”), from Latin ligātiō (stem ligātiōn-; whence the English doublet ligation), derived from ligō (“to bind”), from Proto-Indo-European ﹡leyǵ- (“to bind”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /liˈeɪˌzɒ̃/, /-ˌzɒn/, /-z(ə)n/, (nonstandard)/laɪˈeɪˌzɒn/, /-zən/
  • (Standard Southern British) IPA: /lɪjˈɛjzɔn/, /lɪjˈɛjz(ə)n/
  • (US) IPA: /liˈeɪˌzɑn/, /-ˌsɑn/, (nonstandard)/ˈlaɪ.ə.sən/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -eɪzɒn, -eɪzən
  • Hyphenation: li‧ai‧son

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1759, William Verral, “XV. Des perdreaux au celery blanc. Partridges with celery sauce white.”, in A Complete System of Cookery. […], London: Printed for the author, and sold by him; as also by Edward Verral bookseller, […]; and by John Rivington […], page 92: ↩

  2. 2020 August 16, Alaa Elassar, “A small boutique survived the coronavirus pandemic by live streaming fashion shows on Facebook”, in CNN ‎, archived from the original on 10 March 2026: ↩

  3. 2020 August 4, Richard Conniff, “They may look goofy, but ostriches are nobody’s fool”, in National Geographic Magazine ‎, archived from the original on 2 April 2023: ↩

  4. 2022 July 28, Jeannette Catsoulis, “‘Resurrection’ Review: Mother of Fears”, in The New York Times ‎, archived from the original on 30 September 2022: ↩

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