A Lie groupoid can thus be thought of as a "many-object generalization" of a Lie group, just as a groupoid is a many-object generalization of a group. Accordingly, while Lie groups provide a natural model for (classical) continuous symmetries, Lie groupoids are often used as model for (and arise from) generalised, point-dependent symmetries. Extending the correspondence between Lie groups and Lie algebras, Lie groupoids are the global counterparts of Lie algebroids.