MISSING LINK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does missing link mean? 

• MISSING LINK (noun)
  The noun MISSING LINK has 1 sense:

1. hypothetical organism formerly thought to be intermediate between apes and human beings

  Familiarity information: MISSING LINK used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MISSING LINK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hypothetical organism formerly thought to be intermediate between apes and human beings

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

ape-man; missing link

Hypernyms ("missing link" is a kind of...):

primitive; primitive person (a person who belongs to an early stage of civilization)

 Context examples 

This work reveals sleep as a possible mediating pathway, the potential missing link between fish and intelligence.

(Weekly Fish Consumption Linked to Better Sleep, Higher IQ, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The only missing link now is to prove that merrillite had, in fact, really been Martian whitlockite before.

(New Evidence for A Water-Rich History on Mars, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

This individual is the missing link of Native American ancestry.

(DNA from 31,000-year-old milk teeth leads to discovery of new group of ancient Siberians, University of Cambridge)

Astronomers have found new evidence for the existence of a mid-sized black hole, considered the missing link in the evolution of supermassive black holes.

(Astronomers Find New Evidence for Long-theorized Mid-sized Black Holes, VOA News)

Researchers have found the missing link to how pleasurable things and the circadian system influence one another.

(Neurons That Control Brain's Body Clock Identified, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

In the latter case, he may well approximate to what the vulgar have called the 'missing link.'

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Next he touched upon the Indians, and upon the extraordinary colony of anthropoid apes, which might be looked upon as an advance upon the pithecanthropus of Java, and as coming therefore nearer than any known form to that hypothetical creation, the missing link.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Scientists found the Ancient North Siberians generated the mosaic genetic make-up of contemporary people who inhabit a vast area across northern Eurasia and the Americas – providing the ‘missing link’ of understanding the genetics of Native American ancestry.

(DNA from 31,000-year-old milk teeth leads to discovery of new group of ancient Siberians, University of Cambridge)