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Leader

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leader¹

  • /ˈliː.də(ɹ)/ UK
  • /ˈli.dɚ/ Canada, US
  • [ˈli.ɾɚ] Canada, US

Sounds like liter, litre, lieder · Rhymes with -iːdə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-West Germanic *laidī

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzios

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Proto-West Germanic *laid

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Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Proto-West Germanic *laidijārī

Old English lǣdere

Middle English ledere

English leader

Inherited from Middle English ledere, from Old English lǣdere, from Proto-West Germanic *laidijārī, from *laidī (“leading, leadership”) + *-ārī, or from *laid (“leading”) + *-ārī. By surface analysis, lead + -er. Cognate with Scots leader (“leader”), West Frisian lieder (“leader”), Dutch leider (“leader”), German Leiter (“leader, conductor, manager”), Danish leder (“leader, manager”), Swedish ledare (“leader, conductor, director”), Icelandic leiðari (“leader, conductor”).

noun leaders

  1. Any person who leads or directs. In an era when political leaders promise deliverance from decline through America’s purported preeminence in scientific research, the news that science is in deep trouble in the United States has been as unwelcome as a diagnosis of leukemia following the loss of health insurance.
  2. One who goes first. Follow the leader.
  3. One having authority to direct. We elected her team leader.
  4. One who leads a political party or group of elected party members; sometimes used in titles. Leader of the House of Commons
  5. A person or organization that leads in a certain field in terms of excellence, success, etc. The company is the leader in home remodeling in the county.
  6. A performer who leads a band, choir, or a section of an orchestra.
  7. UK The first violin in a symphony orchestra; the concertmaster.
  8. The dominant animal in a pack of animals, such as wolves or lions. The gesture of licking and nipping a leader's muzzle is similar to the food-begging behavior of wolf pups and may be related to it.
  9. An animal placed in advance of others, especially on a team of horse, oxen, or dogs. Still there are many passages in his [Donne's] writings, where it is plain that he forgot to pull in his leaders; and they gallop away with him at times over hill and dale, over ploughed land and waste.
  10. Either of the two front horses of a team of four in front of a carriage. How proud felt Pierre: In fancy’s eye, he saw the horse-ghosts a-tandem in the van; “These are but wheelers”—cried young Pierre—“the leaders are the generations.”
  11. A fast-growing terminal shoot of a woody plant. A strong central leader may result in essentially horizontal branches resembling a "telephone pole."
  12. A pipe for conducting rain water from a roof to a cistern or to the ground.
  13. UK The first, or the principal, editorial article in a newspaper; a leading or main editorial article; a lead story.
  14. A section of line between the main fishing line and the snell of a hook, intended to be more resistant to bites and harder for a fish to detect than the main fishing line.
  15. A piece of material at the beginning or end of a reel or roll to allow the material to be threaded or fed onto something, as a reel of film onto a projector or a roll of paper onto a rotary printing press. If you need to reload film, the cassette can be rewound slightly by turning the hub located on one end of its spool. Do not rewind so much that the leader disappears into the cassette.
  16. dated An intertitle. The leader only runs three seconds, but it acts like a drop curtain in a theater.
  17. A loss leader or a popular product sold at a normal price.
  18. A type having a dot or short row of dots upon its face.
  19. in plural A row of dots, periods, or hyphens, used in tables of contents, etc., to lead the eye across a space to the right word or number.
  20. A net for leading fish into a pound, weir, etc. when two wheels geer together, the one which communicates the motion to the other is called the driver or leader; and the wheel impelled is the follower
  21. A branch or small vein, not important in itself, but indicating the proximity of a better one.
  22. A block of hard wood pierced with suitable holes for leading ropes in their proper places.
  23. The drive wheel in any kind of machinery.
  24. The path taken by electrons from a cloud to ground level, determining the shape of a bolt of lightning.

Leader²

Where it comes from

English surname, both from the noun leader and an occupational use of lead (“heavy metal”).

proper noun Leaders

  1. countable, uncountable A surname originating as an occupation for a person who led a horse and cart.
  2. countable, uncountable A river in north Canterbury, New Zealand, which joins the (Canterbury) Waiau.
  3. countable, uncountable A town surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Happyland No. 231, western Saskatchewan, Canada, originally named Prussia.
  4. countable, uncountable A populated place in Adams County, Colorado, United States.

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