Word.ws English Dictionary

cross-link

cross-link noun: a covalent bond (or series of bonds) between adjacent chains of a polymer.

Noun

cross-link (plural cross-links)

  1. A covalent bond (or series of bonds) between adjacent chains of a polymer
  2. A similar bond between strands of nucleic acid
  3. (Internet) An internal hyperlink to another webpage belonging to the same web domain.
    • There's no downside to providing reasonable cross links, and several reasons for providing them. For example, effective cross-linking keeps visitors on your site longer (as opposed to heading off-site because they can't find what they need on your site."2006 May 23, Harold Davis, Search Engine Optimization, O’Reilly Media, Inc., →ISBN, page 33
  4. (broadly) A connection between data.
    • (12)For the identification of cross-links between terrorism investigations and judicial proceedings against suspects of terrorist offences, reliable identification data is crucial. Due to the uncertainties regarding alphanumerical data especially for third country nationals, it should be possible...2021 December 11, Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1727 of the European Parliament and the Council and Council Decision...

Verb

cross-link (third-person singular simple present cross-links, present participle cross-linking, simple past and past participle cross-linked)

  1. To join polymer chains together to form one single molecule. An object made from a crosslinked material contains only one supergiant molecule. Crosslinking may take place through covalent bonds or ionic bonds
  2. (Internet) To add an internal hyperlink between two webpages belonging to the same web domain.
    • There's no downside to providing reasonable cross links, and several reasons for providing them. For example, effective cross-linking keeps visitors on your site longer (as opposed to heading off-site because they can't find what they need on your site."2006 May 23, Harold Davis, Search Engine Optimization, O’Reilly Media, Inc., →ISBN, page 33
  3. (broadly) To connect the references of a pool of data to each other.
    • Article 20 of the "General Data Protection Regulation” concerns immunity from automated profiling except under specified circumstances. It is conceivable that this may affect future applications of e.g. ANPRS systems (which already permit the automated and undetected identification of vehicles)...2014, European Commission, Directorate-General for the Information Society and Media, Putting the IC into ‘Policy’ - Strategic analysis for optimising the role of ICT in EU policy delivery – Final...
    • Over 220 news items on Chafea’s website were cross-linked with social media promotion, webinars on funding opportunities, communication guidance for beneficiaries and an upgrade of the database’s download features. In addition, cross-linking with DG SANTE’s website and the Health-EU Newsletter...2022 August 7, REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Implementation of the third Programme of Union Action in the field of health in 2020, COM(2022) 328 final

Forms of cross-link

Noun
pluralcross-links
Verb
third-person singular presentcross-links
present participlecross-linking
past participlecross-linked
pastcross-linked

Origin of cross-link

From cross- + link.

Questions about cross-link

What does cross-link mean?
Cross-link means a covalent bond (or series of bonds) between adjacent chains of a polymer.
What part of speech is cross-link?
Cross-link can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of cross-link?
The plural of cross-link is cross-links.

Words near cross-link in the dictionary

  1. cross-legged
  2. cross-light
  3. cross-lights
  4. cross-linguistic
  5. cross-linguistically
  6. cross-link
  7. cross-linkage
  8. cross-linkages
  9. cross-linked
  10. cross-linked polyethylene
  11. cross-linking

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cross-link (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-cross-link.wav.

Cite this entry: “cross-link.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cross-link. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.