leap
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leap¹
- /ˈliːp/
- [ˈlɪi̯p] UK
- /ˈlɛp/
Rhymes with -iːp
Where it comes from
From Middle English lepen, from Old English hlēapan, from Proto-West Germanic *hlaupan, from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną. Doublet of lope, lowp, elope, gallop, galop, interlope, and loop.
Cognate with North Frisian laap, luup, luupe (“to jog, run, walk”), Saterland Frisian lope, loope (“to run”), West Frisian ljeppe (“to jump”), Dutch lopen (“to run; to walk”), German laufen (“to run; to walk”), Limburgish loupe (“to jog, run, walk”), Low German lopen, loupen (“to run”), Luxembourgish lafen (“to run”), Vilamovian łaojfa (“to run”), Danish løbe (“to run”), Faroese leypa (“to jump”), Icelandic hlaupa (“to run; to jump”), Norwegian Bokmål løpe (“to run”), Norwegian Nynorsk laupa, laupe, løpa, løpe (“to run”), Swedish löpa (“to run”), from Proto-Indo-European *klewb- (“to spring, stumble”) (compare Lithuanian šlùbti ‘to become lame’, klùbti ‘to stumble’).
verb leaps · leaping · leaped · leapt · lept · lope
- To jump. It is grete nede a man to go bak to recouer the better his leep
- To pass over by a leap or jump. to leap a wall or a ditch
- To copulate with (a female beast)
- To copulate with (a human) go leap her, and engender young devilings
- To cause to leap. to leap a horse across a ditch
noun leaps
- The act of leaping or jumping. He made a leap across the river.
- The distance traversed by a leap or jump.
- A group of leopards. Manikanta returned to the palace riding on a royal tiger accompanied by a leap of leopards to the utter surprise of the inhabitants of Pantalam.
- A significant move forward. That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.
- A large step in reasoning, often one that is not justified by the facts. It's quite a leap to claim that those cloud formations are evidence of UFOs.
- A fault.
- Copulation (by a male animal) with a female one. Much difference of opinion exists as to the number of bullings a cow should receive. Here, I think, good judgment should be used. If the bull is cool and quiet, and some time has intervened since he had his last cow, one good leap is better than more […]
- A passing from one note to another by an interval, especially by a long one, or by one including several other intermediate intervals.
- A small cataract over which fish attempt to jump; a salmon ladder. He unfortunately persevered, and the cot veered round towards the fall of the leap, and was running fast towards the rapids, when Mr. Craven lost his self-possession, and jumped out to gain a rock within a length of him, but did not succe[e]d, and he sunk in a part of the river over the leap called
adjective
- Intercalary, bissextile.
leap²
- /ˈliːp/
- [ˈlɪi̯p] UK
- /ˈlɛp/
Rhymes with -iːp
Where it comes from
From Middle English lep, from Old English lēap (“basket”), from Proto-West Germanic *laup, from Proto-Germanic *laupaz (“container, basket”). Cognate with Icelandic laupur (“basket”).
noun leaps · leep
- A trap or snare for fish, made from twigs; a weely.
- Half a bushel.
LEAP³
proper noun
- Initialism of Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol
- A solution stack consisting of the Linux operating system, Eucalyptus cloud, AppScale cloud computing framework, and Python programming language.
- Initialism of long-term equity anticipation security, a kind of option having an expiry date farther (running about a year or longer) than the regular ones.
Leap⁴
Where it comes from
Scottish and English surname, from the noun leap (“basket”). Compare Leeper.
proper noun Leaps
- A surname.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: jump, bounce, spring, bound, hop, leapfrogging, skip, stride, step, upsurge, climb, upswing, surge, bump, rise, straddle
Translations
Every language
verb to copulate — see also copulate
| Deutsch | bespringen |
|---|
verb to jump — see also jump
| Español | saltar, brincar |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 飛躍する hiyaku suru, 跳躍する chōyaku suru |
| 中文 | 跳躍 /跳跃 tiàoyuè, 飛躍 /飞跃 fēiyuè |
| हिन्दी | कूदना kūdnā, उछलना uchalnā |
| Português | saltar |
| Français | sauter, bondir |
| Deutsch | springen, einen Satz machen, hüpfen |
| Italiano | saltare |
| Ελληνικά | πάλλομαι pállomai, αναπηδώ anapidó, ξεπετάγομαι xepetágomai, πετάγομαι petágomai |
| Română | sări, sălta |
| Русский | скака́ть skakátʹ, скакну́ть skaknútʹ, пры́гать prýgatʹ, пры́гнуть prýgnutʹ, вска́кивать vskákivatʹ |
| Tiếng Việt | nhảy (lên, qua, ...) |
| العربية | وَثَبَ waṯaba |
| עברית | קפץ |
noun the act of leaping — see also jump
| Español | salto, brinco |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 跳躍 chōyaku |
| हिन्दी | कूदना kūdnā, छलांगना chalāṅgnā |
| Português | salto |
| Français | saut, bond |
| Deutsch | Sprung, Satz |
| Italiano | salto |
| Ελληνικά | άλμα álma |
| Română | săltare, salt |
| Русский | скачо́к skačók, прыжо́к pryžók |
noun distance traversed by a leap
| 日本語 | 跳躍距離 chōyaku kyori |
|---|---|
| Português | salto |
| Deutsch | Sprungweite |
| Русский | скачо́к skačók |
noun significant move forward
| 日本語 | 飛躍 hiyaku, 躍進 yakushin |
|---|---|
| Português | salto |
| Deutsch | Sprung, Satz |
| Ελληνικά | άλμα álma |
| Русский | скачо́к skačók, ры́во́к rývók, проры́в prorýv, прыжо́к pryžók |
| Tiếng Việt | thành tích, tiến bộ |
noun fault (mining)
| Deutsch | Verwerfung |
|---|
adj intercalary
| Español | bisiesto |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 閏 urū |
| Français | bissextile |
| Italiano | bisestile |
Talk about this word "leap." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/leap. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. leap. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/leap "leap." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/leap.Cite this
@misc{leap_2026,
title = {leap},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/leap},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
