Linked

Linked is the past participle of the verb link and an adjective meaning connected or related. In everyday use, something that is linked has a connection to something else, whether physical, logical, or causal. The phrase linked to is commonly used to describe associations, dependencies, or references between entities.

In language and communication, linking is a fundamental concept. A link can be a physical tether, a reference, or a digital hyperlink. On the World Wide Web, a hyperlink is a selectable element that directs a user from one document to another, enabling navigation across networks. In computing, a linked list is a data structure in which each element points to the next, allowing dynamic memory management and efficient insertions or deletions.

In data and knowledge representations, linked data is a practice of publishing structured information so that separate datasets can be interconnected. Using standards such as URIs, HTTP, and RDF, linked data enables machines to infer relationships among resources across diverse sources, contributing to the semantic web. The term linked is also used in epidemiology and other fields to indicate an observed association between factors or outcomes, such as a factor being linked to an increased risk of a condition.

The concept of linking thus spans everyday language, computer science, and information science, describing anything that binds, references, or associates disparate elements into a connected whole.