What does hyperlinking mean?
Hyperlinking is the act of adding digital links so that users can move from text, images, or other content to another resource with a click. It is especially common in websites, online documents, emails, and digital publishing. The term suggests more than simply connecting two items: it specifically refers to using hyperlink technology, usually a link to a web page, file, email address, or particular location within a document. Hyperlinking can improve navigation and make evidence or related information readily accessible, but it may also create clutter if links are excessive or poorly chosen. In modern communication, the verb “hyperlink” is also often used on its own, as in “hyperlink the source,” although “link” is sufficient in many contexts. The related noun “hyperlink” names the connection itself, while “hypertext” refers to text or a digital system organized through such links.
verbTo create or add a hyperlink, connecting text, an image, or another element to a location on the web or another digital resource. It can also mean connecting elements through links.
- To create or insert a hyperlink in digital content.
- To connect one item of digital content to another by means of a link.
"The editor is hyperlinking each source citation to the relevant research paper."
"She spent the afternoon hyperlinking references in the online bibliography."
"The platform makes it easy to hyperlinking articles to related products, though the standard English form is to hyperlink articles to related products."
Hyperlinking turned plain text into a web of connected knowledge.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does hyperlinking come from?
The word combines the prefix “hyper-,” meaning beyond or to an excessive degree, with “link,” a word for a connection between objects or pieces of information. The concept developed alongside hypertext systems in the twentieth century, especially as electronic documents became interconnected. “Hyperlink” became established in computing and publishing, and “hyperlinking” is the corresponding present-participle form.
Related word forms
How hyperlinking is actually used
In standard edited English, “hyperlink” is generally used as a transitive verb: “hyperlink the text to the source.” The form “hyperlinking” is usually a present participle, as in “hyperlinking pages.” The sentence in the second example is not used as a model.