Align | Vocabulary | Khan Academy

Hey there, wordsmiths! This video is about the word "align." A line, this word has two definitions. The first is to support, ally, or associate with someone, and the second definition is to put things in a straight line. That's its literal definition; it comes from the Latin "Lin," which means line. It's a very useful little word, and it is a verb.

Now I'm gonna throw y'all a 10-second music break, and in that time, see how many words you can come up with that use "Lin." Please, Mr. Music, won't you play?

[Music]

Foreign! Here are some words I came up with earlier, cooking show style: linear, which means in a straight line; to delineate, which means to describe in detail or draw out borders; and, perhaps obviously, the word "line" itself.

But let's dive into "align" because if you're anything like me, you're wondering about that "g." Why isn't it a "ligand"? I will spare you the lecture and say simply that it came from French. Don't worry about it; we just don't say it in the same way. We don't say the "g" in "sign," or at least we don't say it as a "g" sound. I find this stuff fascinating! I could basically keep talking about this forever, but I'm trying to keep these videos short and snackable.

So let's use "align" in some sentences. You can use it literally, right? Like "all lined up" when the planets aligned; our powers were at their greatest. Right? You can draw a straight line from Neptune straight through to the sun. Straight enough? The planets aligned. But you can also use it figuratively, non-literally, to say that people agree.

Jamel and I aligned on the fact that cereal milk is the best part of breakfast. Here we are, in fact, in agreement, in alignment. In fact, I'll write that down. So it's just that this is the noun form; we've added "m-e-n-t" to turn it into a noun: "in alignment."

And one last sentence: Supriya had to align with the other rebels. She had to get in line; they had to link up.

So I hope you and I are all aligned on the meaning of this word because I'm out of time. Until the next one, you can learn anything. David out.