(linguistics) The phonological fusion of two consecutive words and the manner in which this occurs, for example intrusion, consonant-vowel linking, etc. In the context of some languages, such as French, liaison can refer specifically to a normally silent final consonant, being pronounced when the next word begins with a vowel, and can often also include the intrusion of a "t" in certain fixed chunks of language such as the question form "pense-t-il".
