links means A golf course, especially one situated on dunes by the sea. It carries an Arena rating of 1380, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, links ranks #1,060 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,562 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #2,418 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,157 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
links is pronounced /lɪŋks/.
Why “links” is a great word
A golf course situated on sandy, undulating ground near the sea, shaped by coastal wind and salt. From Scots links ("sandy, rolling ground near seashore"), from Old English hlincas, plural of hlinc ("rising ground, ridge"). Unlike a manicured parkland course, an inland garden of shelter and softness, or a mere fairway, a defined corridor within a hole, a links is the raw, ancient terrain itself—a wild geography co-opted into the game. It is the gorse whipped by a sea breeze, the blind shot over a dune's dun shoulder, and the crisp, hollow sound of a well-struck iron from a tight lie of fine fescue. This is a contest not merely against par, but a golfer's ancient negotiation with land that refuses to be tamed, only borrowed for play.
Etymology
From Scots links (“sandy, rolling ground near seashore”), linkis, from Old English hlincas (“rising grounds, hills”).
noun
- A golf course, especially one situated on dunes by the sea.e.g.“but what worthy golf links is not intolerably hard of access?” — 1894, “The Golfer in Search of a Climate”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, page 570:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- linksy 82% match — Characteristic of a links (golf course situated on dunes near the sea). vs links →
- linch 55% match — A ledge, a terrace; a right-angled projection; a lynchet. vs links →
- linksland 54% match — A coastal zone of topsoil-covered sand between the beach sand and mainland soil. vs links →
- lande 52% match — An uncultivated plain, especially a sandy track along the seashore in southwestern France. vs links →
- linked 51% match — Connected, either with links, or as if with links. vs links →
- creekline 51% match — The course occupied by a creek running through a landscape, including the immediate habitat on both sides. vs links →
- duneland 51% match — Land where dunes are found. vs links →
- linker 49% match — That which links. vs links →