tie

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tie¹

  • /taɪ/
  • /təɪ/
  • /toɪ/

Sounds like Tai, Thai, Ty · Rhymes with -aɪ

Where it comes from

From Middle English teye (“cord, chain”), from Old English tēag, tēah (“cord, chain”), from Proto-West Germanic *taugu, from Proto-Germanic *taugō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dewk-. Compare Danish tov, Icelandic taug.

noun ties

  1. A knot; a fastening.
  2. A knot of hair, as at the back of a wig.
  3. A necktie (item of clothing consisting of a strip of cloth tied around the neck). See also bow tie, black tie.

    Similar: necktie

  4. A lace-up shoe. Oxford ties; Derby ties
  5. A twist tie, a piece of wire embedded in paper, strip of plastic with ratchets, or similar object which is wound around something and tightened.
  6. A connection between people or groups of people, especially a strong connection. the sacred ties of friendship or of duty

    Similar: bond

  7. A structural member firmly holding two pieces together. Ties work to maintain structural integrity in windstorms and earthquakes.
  8. US A horizontal wooden or concrete structural member that supports and ties together rails.

    Similar: sleeper

  9. The situation in which two or more participants in a competition are placed equally. It's two outs in the bottom of the ninth, tie score.

    Similar: draw

  10. The situation at the end of all innings of a match where both sides have the same total of runs (different from a draw).
  11. US An equalizer, a run, goal, point, etc which causes participants in a competition to be placed equally or have the same score(s). I thought José was still a point down. I thought he needed another takedown to tie and pull ahead, so I ordered José to let his man up. I looked up too late, realizing that José already scored a tie. By that point, the New Jersey champion got his ...
  12. UK A meeting between two players or teams in a competition. The FA Cup third round tie between Liverpool and Cardiff was their first meeting in the competition since 1957.
  13. A curved line connecting two notes of the same pitch denoting that they should be played as a single note with the combined length of both notes.
  14. phonetic, transcription A curved line connecting two letters (⁀), used in the IPA to denote a coarticulation, as for example /d͡ʒ/. Wikipedia: tie (typography)
  15. One or more equal values or sets of equal values in the data set.
  16. A bearing and distance between a lot corner or point and a benchmark or iron off site.
  17. A connection between two vertices.
  18. A tiewig. [H]e ordered his boarders and apartments to be dished out for the occasion, spared no pains in adorning his own person, and in particular employed a whole hour in adjusting a voluminous tye, in which he proposed to make his appearance.

tie²

  • /taɪ/
  • /təɪ/
  • /toɪ/

Sounds like Tai, Thai, Ty · Rhymes with -aɪ

Where it comes from

From Middle English teien, teiȝen, from Old English tīġan, tīeġan, from Proto-West Germanic *taugijan, from Proto-Germanic *taugijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to tug, draw”). Cognate with Icelandic teygja.

verb ties · tying · tied

  1. transitive To twist (a string, rope, or the like) around itself securely. Tie this rope in a knot for me, please.
  2. transitive To form (a knot or the like) in a string or the like. Tie a knot in this rope for me, please.
  3. transitive To attach or fasten (one thing to another) by string or the like. Tie him to the tree.
  4. figuratively, sometimes, transitive To secure (something) by string or the like. Tie your shoes.
  5. ambitransitive To have the same score or position as another in a competition or ordering. They tied for third place.
  6. US, transitive To have the same score or position as (another) in a competition or ordering. He tied me for third place.
  7. To unite (musical notes) with a line or slur in the notation.
  8. US, colloquial, dated To believe; to credit. […] It seems they have sort of betrothal teas — can you tie it?" "Heavens!" said Mary […]
  9. transitive In the Perl programming language, to extend (a variable) so that standard operations performed upon it invoke custom functionality instead. So, a class for tying a hash to an ISAM implementation might provide an extra method to traverse a set of keys sequentially (the “S” of ISAM), since your typical DBM implementation can't do that.

Similar: fasten, link, bind · Opposite: unfasten, untie

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: bind, necktie, tie beam, crosstie, railroad tie, draw, standoff, connect, linkup, tie-up, link, sleeper, tie-in, affiliation, association, marry

verb

Similar: fasten, link, bind · Opposite: unfasten, untie

Translations

Every language

noun rungs of a train track

Españolpolín, traviesa

noun strong connection between people

Españollazo, vínculo, atadura
Italianolegame, vincolo
Русскийсвязь svjazʹ, у́зы úzy

noun sports: tie score

Españolempate, empatadera
한국어무승부 museungbu, 동점 dongjeom
日本語引き分け hikiwake
中文平局 píngjú, 和局 héjú
Portuguêsempate
Françaiségalité, match nul, remise
DeutschUnentschieden, Remis
Italianopareggio
Русскийничья́ ničʹjá, равный счёт ravnyj sčot
العربيةتَعَادُل taʕādul

noun sports: a meeting between two players or teams in a competition

Españoleliminatoria

noun curved line connecting two notes of the same pitch, combining their lengths

Españolligadura
Françaisliaison de prolongation, liaison de tenue
Русскийли́га líga

noun curved line connecting two letters, used in the IPA

Españolligadura

verb to form a knot or the like in a string or the like

Españolanudar, añudar

verb to attach or fasten with string

Españolatar, ligar, amarrar, ratear, ratiar, maniatar
한국어묶다 mukda
日本語結ぶ musubu, 縛る shibaru
中文綁 /绑 bǎng, 縛 /缚 fù, 打 dǎ
हिन्दीछांदना chāndnā, बांधना bāndhnā
Kiswahili-funga
Portuguêsatar, amarrar
Françaislier
Deutschbinden
Italianolegare, magliare, ammagliare
Ελληνικάδένω déno
Românălega
Русскийсвя́зывать svjázyvatʹ, связа́ть svjazátʹ, привя́зывать privjázyvatʹ, привяза́ть privjazátʹ
Tiếng Việtcột, trói
العربيةرَبَطَ rabaṭa, أَسَرَ ʔasara
עבריתלקשור

verb to secure something by tying a string or the like

Españolatar, ligar, amarrar, asegurar, apersogar
Kiswahili-funga
Ελληνικάδένω déno

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"tie." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/tie. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

tie. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/tie

Chicago

"tie." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/tie.

BibTeX
@misc{tie_2026,
  title = {tie},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/tie},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}