let
/lɛt/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.60 in modern English
3
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To allow to be or do without interference; to not disturb or meddle with; to leave alone.
Transitive verb
noun
The allowing of possession of a property etc. in exchange for rent.
Example Sentences
- "After he knocked for hours, I decided to let him come in."
- "I never let myself worry about the future."
- "Pharaoh said, I will let you go."
- "If your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is[…]"
- "He could not be let die of thirst there alone in the dark."
- "The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",[…]and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention."
Etymology
Derived from Middle English leten, læten, from Old English lǣtan (“to allow, let go, bequeath, leave, rent”), from Proto-West Germanic *lātan, from Proto-Germanic *lētaną (“to leave behind, allow”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₁d- (“to be tired, leave”). Cognates Cognate with Scots lat, lete (“to let, leave”), Yola leth (“let”), North Frisian leet, let, lätje (“to let”), Bavarian låssn (“to let”), Dutch, Low German laten (“to let, leave”), German lassen, laßen (“to let, leave, allow”), Luxembourgish loossen (“to let, leave”), Yiddish לאָזן (lozn, “to let”), Danish lade (“to let, allow, leave”), Faroese, Icelandic láta (“to let”), Norwegian Bokmål la (“to let, leave”), Norwegian Nynorsk la, lata, late (“let, allow”), Swedish låta (“to let, allow, leave”), Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐍄𐌰𐌽 (lētan, “to let”), Albanian lë (“to allow, let, leave”) and partially related to French laisser (“to let”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- Transitive verb
- British usage
- Archaic
- Obsolete