lai
/laɪ/
lai noun: a mostly North European medieval form of lyrical, narrative poem written in octosyllabic couplets that often deals with tales of adventure and romance, with stanzas that do not repeat.
Noun (1)
lai (plural lais)
- A mostly North European medieval form of lyrical, narrative poem written in octosyllabic couplets that often deals with tales of adventure and romance, with stanzas that do not repeat.
- To poetry and music, indeed, the whole Celto-Cymric race seem to have been strongly addicted; and, independently of the materials which Brittany may have supplied for the history of Geoffrey of Monmouth, many other true or romantic adventures were narrated by the Breton poets in their Lais.1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 419
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Lai
Lai
- A Tibeto-Burman language of India and Burma.
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Lai
Lai
- A surname from Chinese.
Proper noun (3) capitalized: Lai
Lai
- A surname from Chinese.
Noun (2) capitalized: LAI
LAI
- Initialism of leaf area index.
lai meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
lai in Hindi
- लाई
lai in Tamil
- லாயி, லாய்
lai in Marathi
- लाई
lai in Urdu
- لائی, لائ
More languagesFewer languages
- lai in Bengali
- লাই
- lai in Malayalam
- ലായി, ലായ്
- lai in Kannada
- ಲಾಯಿ
- lai in Gujarati
- લાઈ
- lai in Odia
- ଲାଇ
- lai in Nepali
- लाई
Forms of lai
| plural | lais |
|---|---|
| alternative form | lay |
Origin of lai
From Middle English lai, lay, from Old French lai (“song, lyric, poem”), from Old Frankish *laik, *laih (“play, melody, song”), from Proto-Germanic *laikaz, *laikiz (“jump, play, dance, hymn”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyg- (“to jump, spring, play”). Akin to Old High German leih (“a play, skit, melody, song”), Middle High German leich (“piece of music, epic song played on a harp”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌺𐍃 (laiks, “a dance”), Old English lācan (“to move quickly, fence, sing”). More at lake.
Borrowed from Lai Lai.
From Chinese 賴／赖 (lài) (Mandarin: lài, Cantonese: laai⁶, Hakka: lai).
Phrases with lai
Words that rhyme with lai
Questions about lai
- What does lai mean?
- Lai means a mostly North European medieval form of lyrical, narrative poem written in octosyllabic couplets that often deals with tales of adventure and romance, with stanzas that do not repeat.
- What is lai in Hindi?
- Lai in Hindi is लाई. See Lai meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is lai?
- Lai can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce lai?
- Lai is pronounced /laɪ/.
- What is the plural of lai?
- The plural of lai is lais.
Words near lai in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lai (page history and authors); Lai (page history and authors); LAI (page history and authors); lai (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lai (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lai (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lai (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lai (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lai (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lai (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lai (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lai (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lai (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “lai.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lai. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.