Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An instance or a means of communication between different groups or units of an organization, especially in the armed forces.
- n. One that maintains communication: served as the President's liaison with Congress.
- n. A close relationship, connection, or link.
- n. An adulterous relationship; an affair.
- n. Linguistics Pronunciation of the usually silent final consonant of a word when followed by a word beginning with a vowel, especially in French.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A bond of union; an intimacy; entanglement; commonly, an illicit intimacy between a man and a woman.
- n. In the French language, the linking or joining in pronunciation of a final consonant, usually silent, to the succeeding word when that begins with a vowel: for example, vous (vö) and avez, when coming together, are pronounced vö zavā.
- n. In cookery, a thickening, generally of beaten eggs, intended to combine or amalgamate the ingredients of a dish.
Wiktionary
- n. Communication between two parties or groups.
- n. Co-operation, working together.
- n. A relayer of information between two forces in an army or during war.
- n. A tryst, romantic meeting.
- n. figuratively An illicit sexual relationship or affair.
- n. linguistics A sandhi in which a normally silent final consonant is pronounced when the next word begins with a vowel.
- v. proscribed To liaise.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A union, or bond of union; an intimacy; an interrelationship.
- n. An illicit sexual relation between a man and a woman; a sexual afffair.
- n. A process of communication between parts of an organization or between two organizations acting together for a common purpose.
- n. A person whose function it is to maintain such communication.
- n. (Phonetics) A pronunciation of a consonant sound that would be otherwise silent, such as the final consonant of certain French words, when the following word begins with a vowel sound.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a usually secretive or illicit sexual relationship
- n. a channel for communication between groups
Etymologies
- From French liaison ("binding"), from Latin ligatio (stem ligation-) (English ligation), derived from ligō, from Proto-Indo-European *leygʰ- (“to bind”). (Wiktionary)
- French, from Old French, from Latin ligātiō, ligātiōn-, from ligātus, past participle of ligāre, to bind; see ligate. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Now, often, CIA agents have what they call a liaison relationship with the host government.”
“And what they call liaison officers, that is intelligence officers, and friendly intelligence services.”
“It's good cross-talking, and we're sharing what we call liaison officers to cross-talk and make sure we're doing things correctly.”
“To name both the act of thickening and the agents of thickening, early French cooks used the word liaison, which meant a close connection or bond, whether physical, political, or amorous.”
Simon & Schuster: On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
“CHAMBLISS: Certainly, Wolf, the top priority is infiltrating terrorist organizations with human assets, people who work for us, rather than depending on what we refer to as liaison assets, people from other countries who work for other intelligence organizations, providing us with information.”
“RUMSFELD: I think it is certainly likely that they could be doing something other than what you characterize as liaison work.”
“Dutocq had seen with great uneasiness what he called the liaison of des Lupeaulx with Madame Rabourdin, and his silent wrath on the subject was accumulating.”
“(More on the French word "liaison" at the excellent L'internaute. com)”
“More on the French word "liaison" at the excellent L'internaute.com”
“And liaison is not supposed to occur between preceding words and those following which begin with H aspiree.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘liaison’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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EU Buzz - ALL words and expressions
A combined list of
1. EU Buzz - single words
2. EU Buzz - collocations
3. EU Buzz - the 100 most active
collocation constituentsabsorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 2650 more...
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The weird, the wonderful and the plai...
Loved for their ingenuity, an exact description, or simply for the pure joy of it.
acidulous, aprosdoketon, higgledy-piggledy, lexicographical, ninja, audacious, somnabulist, shivaree, amorphous, quidnunc, glib, melancholy and 353 more...
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good to know
sardonic, concordance, acerbic, onerous, saccharine, muliebrity, fugacious, evanescent, gambit, capricious, liaison, fallacious and 18 more...
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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
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2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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My Favourite Words
diminutive, booth, minimalism, idiosyncratic, antithesis, aesthetic, hedgehog, liaison, kiosk, plethora, epitome
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Tricky Words from French
Loanwords from French -- both established and wet behind the ears -- that are tricky to spell or pronounce properly.
trompe l'oeil, hors d'oeuvre, oeuvre, objet d'art, objet trouvé, contretemps, milieu, métier, mise en scène, mise en place, éclat, faineant and 64 more...
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Negotiation
all the same, take into account, despite the fact, weighing, bear in mind, admitting, in spite of, supposing, nevertheless, nonetheless, exemption, liaison and 1 more...
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September Words-10031
During the month of September, post at least 10 new words to this list. Make sure you cite where you read the word (book/author/pg) and quote the context/sentence where you found it. If someone has...
pseudonym, Cacophony, Cannabis, Bogus, Soulless, via, celestial, Liquor, dwarf, Wretched, Gemini, quartz and 53 more...
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February 2012
filiopietistic, bifurcate, enclave, wedlock, decadent, unduly, defunct, lapel, tumescent, capitulation, leaden, scintilla and 83 more...
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Out of Book Words
commiserate, equanimity, dulcet, cursory, diffident, profligate, egregious, precocious, dissemble, aggregate, efficacy, ingenuous and 100 more...
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I do not like them, Sam I Am
Words that, for various reasons, I wish we could do without.
copacetic, gamut, horehound, lewd, membrane, metrics, mucous, mucus, negligee, nostril, odious, odor and 143 more...
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Week 1, Day 1
ignominy, marquee, deter, chariot, stern, perfidy, treacherous, insolent, presumptuous, banish, dubious, livid and 133 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for liaison.

seanahan The spelling of this word looks really funny. Nov 13, 2008
john “The process of thickening a sauce, soup or stew. This includes all rouxs, starch and water mixtures (slurries), beurre marni and egg yolks with or without cream. Egg yolks must be tempered with hot liquid before adding to the liquid in order to prevent curdling.�?
That's from this glossary. I'd previously only been familiar with the weirdnet definitions. Nov 13, 2008