Other forms: aligned, aligning, aligns
To align is to bring into line, or to take a side. Align the wheels, align yourself with them, aligned interests.
The physical sense is exact and mechanical. The political sense is about choosing whose side you are on, and the non-aligned movement was the group of states that refused to pick between the two Cold War blocs. In business, aligned means pulling the same way.
1verbalignTo bring into line, or to take a side.
“Make sure the pictures are aligned before you nail them to the wall.”
align is a lining up.
French aligner comes from a ligne, into line, from Latin linea, a line.
Proto-Indo-European
*līnom
Latin
lineo — make straight or perpendicular
Old French
alignier
Middle French
aligner
Middle English
alynen
English, today
align
Built from
From Middle English alynen, alinen (“copulate”), from Middle French aligner, from Old French alignier, from a- + lignier, from Latin lineo (“make straight or perpendicular”), from the noun linea (“line”), from līneus (“flaxen; flaxen [thing]”), from līnum (“flax”), likely ultimately from Proto-Indo-European līnom (compare linen).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA