leaf

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leaf¹

  • /liːf/ UK
  • /lif/ US

Sounds like lief, Leith (th-fronting) · Rhymes with -iːf

Where it comes from

From Middle English lef, leef, from Old English lēaf, from Proto-West Germanic *laub, from Proto-Germanic *laubą (“leaf”), from Proto-Indo-European *lowbʰ-o-m, from *lewbʰ- (“to cut off”).

Cognates

Cognate with Scots leaf (“leaf”), Yola laafe (“leaf”), North Frisian luuf (“leaf”), Saterland Frisian Loof (“leaf”), West Frisian leaf (“leaf”), Cimbrian loap (“leaf”), Dutch loof (“foliage”), German Laub (“leaves”), German Low German Loov (“leaf”), Luxembourgish Laf (“foliage, leaves”), Mòcheno lap (“leaf”), Vilamovian łaub, łaup, łojp (“leaf”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål løv (“leaf”), Faroese leyv (“leaf”), Icelandic lauf (“leaf”), Norwegian Nynorsk lauv (“leaf”), Swedish löv (“leaf”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌿𐍆𐍃 (laufs, “leaf”); also Irish luibh (“herb, plant”), Latin liber (“bast; book”), Albanian labë (“rind”), Lithuanian lúobas (“bark; bast”), Polish łub (“bark”), Russian луб (lub, “bast”).

(Internet slang: Canadian): In reference to the maple leaf as national symbol.

noun leaves

  1. countable, uncountable The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants. Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.
  2. countable, uncountable A foliage leaf or any of the many and often considerably different structures it can specialise into.
  3. countable, uncountable Anything resembling the leaf of a plant.
  4. countable, uncountable A sheet of a book, magazine, etc. (consisting of two pages, one on each face of the leaf). Heretofore advertisers have had to buy and pay for a leaf — two pages.
  5. countable, uncountable A sheet of any substance beaten or rolled until very thin. gold leaf

    Similar: folio, folium

  6. countable, uncountable One of the individual flat or curved strips of metal, typically made of spring steel, that make up a leaf spring. Lumbering down a precipitous "slideway," the Thornycroft broke two main leaves in the back spring[.]
  7. countable, in plural, uncountable Tea leaves.
  8. countable, uncountable A flat section used to extend the size of a table.
  9. countable, uncountable A moveable panel, e.g. of a bridge or door, originally one that hinged but now also applied to other forms of movement. The train car has one single-leaf and two double-leaf doors per side.
  10. countable, uncountable In a tree, a node that has no descendants. The algorithm pops the stack to obtain a new current node when there are no more children (when it reaches a leaf).
  11. countable, uncountable The layer of fat supporting the kidneys of a pig, leaf fat.
  12. countable, uncountable One of the teeth of a pinion, especially when small.
  13. slang, uncountable Cannabis.
  14. Internet, countable, humorous, pejorative, sometimes, uncountable A Canadian person.
  15. countable, uncountable A particular value of the EAX register when a program runs the CPUID instruction; each leaf represents a different category of information returned about the processor. X86_FEATURE_HETERO_CORE_TOPOLOGY is used to identify whether the processor support heterogeneous core type by reading CPUID leaf Fn_0x80000026_EAX and bit 30. if the bit is set as one, then amd_pstate driver will check EBX 30:28 bits to get the core type.

Similar: phyllon

verb leafs · leafing · leafed

  1. intransitive To produce leaves; put forth foliage. Then flowered the mead, then leafed all 'Twas caused by the runic lay.
  2. transitive To divide (a vegetable) into separate leaves. The lettuce in our burgers is 100% hand-leafed.
  3. informal, transitive, uncommon To play a prank on someone by throwing a large clump or collection of leaves at them.

Similar: leave

Leaf²

Where it comes from

From the Old English personal names Lēofa and Lēofe, both from lēof (“dear, beloved”).

proper noun Leafs · Life

  1. A surname from Old English.

Leaf³

Where it comes from

From the maple leaf depicted on Canada's flag.

noun Leafs · Life

  1. Internet, humorous, pejorative, sometimes A Canadian person.
  2. Canada, slang A member of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, its organization, or its supporters.
  3. A model of car built by Nissan, with a name chosen for its green connotations.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: foliage, thumb, riffle, flick, flip, folio, riff, leaflet, midrib, frond, foliar, leafage, herb, vine, clover, coca

noun

Similar: phyllon

verb

Similar: leave

Translations

Every language

noun part of a plant

Españolhoja, foja (desus.), fronda, coscoja
한국어잎 ip
日本語葉 ha, 葉っぱ happa, 木の葉 konoha
中文葉 /叶 yè, 葉子 /叶子 yèzi
हिन्दीपत्ता pattā, पत्ती pattī
Kiswahilijani, msahafu
Portuguêsfolha
Françaisfeuille
DeutschBlatt, Laubblatt
Italianofoglia
Ελληνικάφύλλο fýllo
Românăfrunză
Русскийлист list, ли́стья lístʹja
Tiếng Việtlá
العربيةوَرَقَة waraqa
עבריתעָלֶה alé

noun anything resembling the leaf of a plant

Françaisfeuille
Ελληνικάφύλλο fýllo
Русскийлист list, листы́ listý

noun sheet of a book

Españolhoja, folio
한국어낱장 natjang
日本語一枚 ichimai
हिन्दीपन्ना pannā
Portuguêsfolha
Françaisfeuille, feuillet
DeutschBlatt
Italianofoglio
Ελληνικάφύλλο fýllo
Românăfoaie
Русскийлист list, листы́ listý
العربيةصَحِيفَة ṣaḥīfa

noun sheet of any substance beaten or rolled until very thin

Españolhoja
日本語箔 haku
हिन्दीपत्ती pattī
Portuguêsfolha
Françaisfeuille
Italianofoglia
Ελληνικάφύλλο fýllo
Românăfolie
Русскийлист list, листы́ listý

noun flat section used to extend a table

Españoltablero
Portuguêsaba
Françaisrallonge, plateau
DeutschPlatte
Italianoprolunga
Ελληνικάφύλλο fýllo
Русскийлист list, ли́стья lístʹja

noun moveable panel of a bridge or door

Españolhoja, tablero móvil
हिन्दीपल्ला pallā
Françaisbattant, ouvrant, vantail

noun computing, mathematics: tree node without descendants

Españolhoja
Portuguêsfolha
Françaisfeuille
DeutschBlatt
Italianofoglia

verb to produce leaves

Françaisfeuiller

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"leaf." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/leaf. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

leaf. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/leaf

Chicago

"leaf." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/leaf.

BibTeX
@misc{leaf_2026,
  title = {leaf},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/leaf},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}