LIGATURE

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LIGATURE.
1. A term in PRINTING for two or more joined letters cast in the same piece of type: æ in Cæsar; fl in florin; ffi in office. Early typefaces had many ligatures, imitating connected letters in handwriting, but few are retained in contemporary English printed alphabets. Vowel ligatures such as æ are now commonly replaced by open ae, even when transcribing LATIN, Latinized GREEK, and OLD ENGLISH: Caesar not Cæsar; Aelfric not Ælfric.

2. In PHONETICS, a mark like the slur in musical notation placed over or under a pair of symbols to show that they are spoken together: , and . Top ligature is favoured for letters with descenders, bottom ligature for letters with ascenders. Compare ASH, DIGRAPH.

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