unlinked

Unlinked is an adjective meaning not connected or not joined by a link. In computing and information contexts, it can describe data, pages, or references that lack hyperlinks, as opposed to linked content which provides navigation between items. In everyday usage, an unlinked reference is one that cannot be reached directly via a hyperlink.

In genetics, unlinked typically refers to loci that do not show linkage. Loci located on different chromosomes, or far apart on the same chromosome, tend to assort independently during meiosis. When the recombination fraction approaches 0.5, the loci are described as unlinked, and their inheritance patterns resemble those expected under independent assortment.

In the web and search optimization domain, unlinked mentions occur when a term or brand is referenced without a hyperlink. Unlinked content can affect navigation, accessibility, and discoverability by web crawlers, and may influence how users perceive relationships between topics.

In computing, unlink is a command and system call used to remove a link to a file in a directory. An unlinked file’s directory entry disappears; the actual data blocks are freed only if no other hard links exist. The term unlinked can also describe data graphs or networks in which a node has no connections to other nodes. Overall, the meaning of unlinked depends on the context, but it generally denotes the absence of an explicit connection or reference.