From , from con- + necto, which is cognate with English knot and English knit.

• enPR: kə-nĕktʹ, IPA: /kəˈnɛkt/

connect (connects, present participle connecting; simple past and past participle connected)

1. (intransitive, of an object) To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object.

   Synonyms: affix, join, put together, unite, Thesaurus:join

   I think this piece connects to that piece over there.

2. (intransitive, of two objects) To join: to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to each other.

   Both roads have the same name, but they don't connect: they're on opposite sides of the river, and there's no bridge there.

3. (intransitive, of a blow) To arrive at an intended target; to land.

   When that roundhouse kick connected with his temple it sent him flying across the room.

4. (transitive, of an object) To join (two other objects), or to join (one object) to (another object): to be a link between two objects, thereby attaching them to each other.

   The new railroad will connect the northern part of the state to the southern part.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:

     Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. […] A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:

     With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.

5. (transitive, of a person) To join (two other objects), or to join (one object) to (another object): to take one object and attach it to another.

   I connected the printer to the computer, but I couldn't get it work.

6. To join an electrical or telephone line to a circuit or network.

   When the technician connects my house, I'll be able to access the internet.

7. To associate; to establish a relation between.

   I didn't connect my lost jewelry with the news of an area cat burglar until the police contacted me.

8. To make a travel connection; to switch from one means of transport to another as part of the same trip.

   I'm flying to London where I connect with a flight heading to Hungary.

• disconnect

• French: accoupler, connecter
• German: verbinden
• Italian: connettere, connettersi
• Portuguese: conectar
• Russian: свя́зывать
• Spanish: conectar

• French: brancher
• German: anschließen, verbinden
• Italian: connettere, cablare, collegare
• Portuguese: conectar
• Russian: подсоединя́ть
• Spanish: conectar

connect (plural connects)

1. (slang) Clipping of connection
   1. A drug dealer.
      • 2013, ReShonda Tate Billingsley, Victoria Christopher Murray, Friends & Foes, page 100:

        My connects in Chicago are telling me all kinds of things. Nobody knows anything for sure except that Griffith is missing and money is missing.

      • 2021, Mike Majlak, Riley J. Ford, The Fifth Vital:

        I called all my connects, but they were completely dry too.

   2. A useful friend or associate.