related

Related is an adjective that denotes a connection or relevance between two or more entities. It indicates that things are linked, share a common origin, or pertain to the same topic or context. In everyday use, related describes relationships between events, ideas, or objects, as in "These two incidents are related" or "The two flavors are related to the same ingredient."

Etymology and form: Related derives from the verb relate, which comes from Old French relate and ultimately from Latin roots connected with bringing things back or recounting. The adjective form is built from the past participle of relate.

General senses and applications: In family terms, related means connected by blood or marriage, such as "She is related to him by marriage" or "They are closely related." In informational or topical contexts, related signals relevance or pertinence to a subject, as in related information, related topics, or related symptoms.

Science, mathematics, and beyond: In biology and anthropology, relatedness describes how closely two organisms or groups are connected by ancestry; in genetics, relatedness or kinship quantifies shared ancestry. In mathematics, a relation is a set of ordered pairs, and two elements are related if they satisfy that relation. In statistics, related or non-independent samples arise when subjects share some common factors.

Computing and data: In databases and information systems, related records are linked through keys or identifiers, allowing navigation between interconnected data. In information retrieval, related terms or topics are identified to improve search and discovery.

Related versus unrelated: The opposite is unrelated, meaning devoid of a connection or relevance. The precise sense of related—whether causal, correlative, or merely contextual—depends on context and the nature of the connection.