lead
/ˈlɛd/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.20 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A heavy, pliable, inelastic metal element, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished; both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity. It is easily fusible, forms alloys with other metals, and is an ingredient of solder and type metal. Atomic number 82.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Although I could distinctly see the bottom, yet, heaving the lead, I found the ship in fifteen fathoms."
- "This copy has too much lead; I prefer less space between the lines."
- "I would have the tower two stories, and goodly leads upon the top."
- "These rooms were on a level with the apartments of our friends Bows and Costigan next door at No. 4; and by reaching over the communicating leads, Grady could command the mignonette-box which bloomed in Bows’s window."
- "They pumped him full of lead."
- "All my life I want money and power Respect my mind or die from lead shower"
Etymology
From Middle English led, leed, from Old English lēad (“lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laud (“lead”), possibly borrowed from Proto-Celtic *ɸloudom, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd- (“to flow”). Cognate with Scots leid, lede (“lead”), North Frisian lud, luad (“lead”), West Frisian lead (“lead”), Dutch lood (“lead”), Low German Lod (“solder, plummet”), German Lot (“solder, plummet, sounding line”), Swedish lod (“solder, plummet”), Icelandic lóð (“a plumb, weight”), Irish luaidhe (“lead”) Latin plumbum (“lead”), Finnish luoti (“bullet”). Doublet of loth. More at flow. * (graphite in a pencil): Graphite was once believed to be a form of lead; see black lead and plumbago.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- Uncountable
- Countable
- Slang
- Transitive verb
- Intransitive verb
- British usage
- American usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
acetate of lead
Adelaide Lead
arm the lead
black lead
blue lead
Canadian Lead
cast the lead
heave the lead