Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

leek

/liːk/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.87 in modern English

Syllables
leek
IPA
/liːk/
8
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A vegetable of variety Allium ampeloprasum, having edible leaves and an onion-like bulb but with a milder flavour than the onion.

noun

Any of several species of Allium, broadly resembling the domesticated plant in appearance in the wild.

name

A town and civil parish with a town council in Staffordshire Moorlands district, Staffordshire, England (OS grid ref SJ9856).

name

A village and former municipality in Groningen province, Netherlands.

name

A surname.

Etymology

From Middle English leek, leeke, lek, leke, leyke, from Old English lēac, lēc (“allium; garlic or leek”), from Proto-West Germanic *lauk, from Proto-Germanic *laukaz (“leek”), from *leukaną, *lūkaną (“to close, shut”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewg- (“to bend”). Cognates Cognate with Alemannic German Làuich (“leek”), Dutch look (“leek”), Plautdietsch Luak (“leek”), German Lauch (“leek”), Danish løg (“onion”), Faroese leykur (“onion”), Icelandic laukur (“garlic, leek, onion”), Norwegian Bokmål løk (“onion”), Norwegian Nynorsk lauk, løk (“onion”), Swedish lök (“onion”), Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Russian лук (luk, “onion”), Polabian lauk (“garlic”), Serbo-Croatian лу̏к, lȕk (“onion; garlic”), Estonian lauk (“allium”), Finnish and Ingrian laukka (“onion”), Livonian lōka (“onion”), Livvi laukku (“onion”), Ludian lauk (“leek; onion”); also Gaulish lunget (“to load”), Irish fulaing (“to bear; to support; to sustain; to mountain”), Scottish Gaelic fuiling, fulaing (“to suffer; to stand; to allow; to bear”), Welsh gollwng (“to drop, release; to leak; to dissolve”), Latin luxus (“dislocated”), Ancient Greek λύγος (lúgos, “chaste tree; flexible twig, withe”), Albanian vlug (“peak”), Sanskrit रुग्ण (rugṇa, “bent, broken, checked; diseased, infirm, sick”). See garlic.

Origin

Word Breakdown

  • Root: leek, lēac, *lauk, *laukaz, *lewg-, -

Inflected Forms

leeks (plural)

Derived Forms

houseleek leekish leeklike leeky

Phrases

Asian leek broadleaf wild leek eat the leek garden leek green leek green leek parrot leek-green leek moth

Frequently Paired Words

garlic leak Thrips tabaci

Synonyms

broadleaf wild leek the Cambrian symbol garden leek scallion allium porrum

Homonyms

leak

Rhymes With

week speak unique weak seek peak greek technique creek leak freak streak

Questions

How do you pronounce leek?
The recorded pronunciation is /liːk/.
What does leek mean?
A vegetable of variety Allium ampeloprasum, having edible leaves and an onion-like bulb but with a milder flavour than the onion.
Where does leek come from?
It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce leek

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “leek”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/liːk/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “leek”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “leek” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.