The holdings-together, spoken plural — the Grammar's own junction word for how atoms join into molecules and organisms.
Plural of bond, from Old English bend/bond (that which binds), reinforced by Old Norse band, both from the same root as bind; a bond was first a literal tie before it named any abstract connection.
The Grammar's own word for the holdings-together between atoms — not a metaphor borrowed from elsewhere, but the joins a molecule or an organism is actually made of.