leg
/leɡ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.66 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A part of garment, such as a pair of trousers/pants, that covers a leg.
noun
A rod-like protrusion from an inanimate object, such as a piece of furniture, supporting it from underneath.
noun
A distance that a sailing vessel does without changing the sails from one side to the other.
Example Sentences
- "Insects have six legs."
- "Dan won't be able to come to the party, since he broke his leg last week and is now on crutches."
- "The left leg of these jeans has a tear."
- "the legs of a chair or table"
- "This observation is an important leg of my argument."
- "After six days, we're finally in the last leg of our cross-country trip."
Etymology
From Middle English leg, legge, from Old Norse leggr (“leg, calf, bone of the arm or leg, hollow tube, stalk”), from Proto-Germanic *lagjaz, *lagwijaz (“leg, thigh”) (see it for more). Cognate with Scots leg (“leg”), Icelandic leggur (“leg, limb”), Norwegian Bokmål legg (“leg”), Norwegian Nynorsk legg (“leg”), Swedish lägg (“leg, shank, shaft”), Danish læg (“leg”), Lombardic lagi (“thigh, shank, leg”), Latin lacertus (“limb, arm”), Persian لنگ (leng). Upon borrowing, mostly displaced the native Old English term sċanca (Modern English shank).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: leg, leggr, *lagjaz
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /leɡ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
a leg to stand on
an arm and a leg
base leg
break a leg
Cabriole leg
change the leg
chicken leg
Cochin leg