leader
UK/ˈliː.də(ɹ)//ˈli.dɚ/
leader noun: any person who leads or directs.
Noun
leader (plural leaders)
- Any person who leads or directs.
- In an era when political leaders promise deliverance from decline through America’s purported preeminence in scientific research, the news that science is in deep trouble in the United States has been as unwelcome as a diagnosis of leukemia following the loss of health insurance.2012 January, Philip E. Mirowski, “Harms to Health from the Pursuit of Profits”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 04 Apr 2012, page 87
- One who goes first.
- Follow the leader.
- One having authority to direct.
- We elected her team leader.
- America needs not only an administrator, but a leader - a pathfinder, a blazer of the trail to the high road that will avoid the bottomless morass of crass materialism that has engulfed so many of the great civilizations of the past.1928, Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Happy Warrior Alfred E. Smith, Houghton Mifflin, →OCLC, →OL, page 40
- One who leads a political party or group of elected party members; sometimes used in titles.
- Leader of the House of Commons
- Senate Majority Leader
- A person or organization that leads in a certain field in terms of excellence, success, etc.
- The company is the leader in home remodeling in the county.
- A performer who leads a band, choir, or a section of an orchestra.
- The first violin in a symphony orchestra; the concertmaster.
- The dominant animal in a pack of animals, such as wolves or lions.
- The gesture of licking and nipping a leader's muzzle is similar to the food-begging behavior of wolf pups and may be related to it.1987, Sylvia A. Johnson with Alice Aamodt, Wolf Pack: Tracking Wolves in the Wild, page 41
- Synonyms:
- alpha, pack leader
- An animal placed in advance of others, especially on a team of horse, oxen, or dogs.
- Still there are many passages in his [Donne's] writings, where it is plain that he forgot to pull in his leaders; and they gallop away with him at times over hill and dale, over ploughed land and waste.1846, Julius Charles Hare, “On the Comforter's conviction of Righteousness”, in The mission of the Comforter, and other sermons with Notes
- Either of the two front horses of a team of four in front of a carriage.
- How proud felt Pierre: In fancy’s eye, he saw the horse-ghosts a-tandem in the van; “These are but wheelers”—cried young Pierre—“the leaders are the generations.”1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or The Ambiguities
- Antonyms:
- wheeler
- A fast-growing terminal shoot of a woody plant.
- A strong central leader may result in essentially horizontal branches resembling a "telephone pole."1975, David J. De Laubenfels, Mapping the world's vegetation: regionalization of formations and flora, page 82
- A pipe for conducting rain water from a roof to a cistern or to the ground.
- The first, or the principal, editorial article in a newspaper; a leading or main editorial article; a lead story.
- A section of line between the main fishing line and the snell of a hook, intended to be more resistant to bites and harder for a fish to detect than the main fishing line.
- A piece of material at the beginning or end of a reel or roll to allow the material to be threaded or fed onto something, as a reel of film onto a projector or a roll of paper onto a rotary printing press.
- If you need to reload film, the cassette can be rewound slightly by turning the hub located on one end of its spool. Do not rewind so much that the leader disappears into the cassette.2011, Rebekah Modrak, Bill Anthes, Reframing Photography: Theory and Practice
- An intertitle.
- The leader only runs three seconds, but it acts like a drop curtain in a theater.1913, Epes Winthrop Sargent, The Technique of the Photoplay, New York, page 15
- A loss leader or a popular product sold at a normal price.
- A type having a dot or short row of dots upon its face.
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- A row of dots, periods, or hyphens, used in tables of contents, etc., to lead the eye across a space to the right word or number.
- A net for leading fish into a pound, weir, etc.
- when two wheels geer together, the one which communicates the motion to the other is called the driver or leader; and the wheel impelled is the follower1852, D. Gilbert, “Geering”, in Appleton's dictionary of machines, mechanics, engine-work, and engineering, page 786
- A branch or small vein, not important in itself, but indicating the proximity of a better one.
- A block of hard wood pierced with suitable holes for leading ropes in their proper places.
- The drive wheel in any kind of machinery.
- Synonyms:
- guide, conductor, driver, drive wheel
- The path taken by electrons from a cloud to ground level, determining the shape of a bolt of lightning.
Proper noun capitalized: Leader
Leader (countable and uncountable, plural Leaders)
- A surname originating as an occupation for a person who led a horse and cart.
- A river in north Canterbury, New Zealand, which joins the (Canterbury) Waiau.
- A town surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Happyland No. 231, western Saskatchewan, Canada, originally named Prussia.
- A populated place in Adams County, Colorado, United States.
leader meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
leader in Hindi
- one having authority
- नेता netā, मुखिया mukhiyā, अगुआ aguā, रईस raīs, सरदार sardār
leader in Tamil
- one having authority
- தலை talai, தலைவர் talaivar, தலைவன் talaivaṉ, தலைவி talaivi
leader in Marathi
- leader, chief, captain
- कर्णधार karṇadhār
leader in Urdu
- one having authority
- رَہْنُما rahnumā, لِیڈَر līḍar, اِمام imām, سَرْدار sardār, رَہْبَر rahbar, قائِد qāid
More languagesFewer languages
- leader in Bengali
- নেতা neta
- leader in Telugu
- నాయకుడు nāyakuḍu
- leader in Malayalam
- നേതാവ് nētāvŭ, പേശ്വാ pēśvā, മന്നൻ mannaṉ, മാലൂമി mālūmi
- leader in Kannada
- ಮುಂದಾಳ್, ಮುಂದಾಳು, ಮುಂಚ, ಮುಂದುಗ
- leader in Punjabi
- ਆਗੂ āgū, ਜਥੇਦਾਰ jathedār
- leader in Gujarati
- આગેવાન āgevān
- leader in Odia
- ପତି pati, ପ୍ରଣୟ praṇaya
- leader in Sanskrit
- नेतृ netṛ, नेत्री netrī, शिरस् śíras
- leader in Assamese
- ঘাই ghai
- leader in Nepali
- कर्णधार karṇadhār
- leader in Pashto
- رهبر rahbar, قايد qāyed, زعيم za'im, ليډر liḍar
- leader in Tagalog
- pamuno
- leader in Arabic
- قَائِد qāʔid, زَعِيم zaʕīm, رَئِيس raʔīs, عَقِيد ʕaqīd
- leader in Malay
- ketua, pemimpin
- leader in Thai
- พระยา prá-yaa, ผู้นำ pûu-nam, หัวหน้า hǔua-nâa, จ่าฝูง jàa-fǔung
- leader in Vietnamese
- lãnh đạo
- leader in Myanmar
- ခေါင်းဆောင် hkaung:hcaung
Examples of leader in a sentence
- My obligation as a leader of the Korean people is to achieve unification of our country by peaceful means if possible but by force if necessary.1978, Richard Nixon, quoting Syngman Rhee, RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 127:
- The leader is the man who knows the way of the overlords but identifies with the life of the oppressed.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London...
Synonyms of leader
Antonyms
Forms of leader
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | leaders |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Leaders |
Origin of leader
Inherited from Middle English ledere, from Old English lǣdere, from Proto-West Germanic *laidijārī, from *laidī (“leading, leadership”) + *-ārī, or from *laid (“leading”) + *-ārī. By surface analysis, lead + -er. Cognate with Scots leader (“leader”), West Frisian lieder (“leader”), Dutch leider (“leader”), German Leiter (“leader, conductor, manager”), Danish leder (“leader, manager”), Swedish ledare (“leader, conductor, director”), Icelandic leiðari (“leader, conductor”).
English surname, both from the noun leader and an occupational use of lead (“heavy metal”).
Words formed from leader
- academy leader
- ape leader
- archleader
- arch-leader
- bandleader
- bearleader
- bear leader
- cheerleader
- chip leader
- choirleader
- clubhouse leader
- coleader
- deckplate leader
- destroyer leader
- e-leader
- fairleader
- fleet leader
- follow my leader
- follow-the-leader
- follow the leader
- foreleader
- gangleader
- gloomleader
- grassroots leader
- group leader
- houseleader
- kill leader
- leaderboard
- leader board
- leaderess
- leaderette
- leaderfag
- leaderful
- leaderine
- leaderish
- leaderless
- leaderlike
- leaderly
- leaderman
- leader of the free world
- leader of the opposition
- leader sequence
- leadership
- majority leader
- market leader
- micronational leader
- minority leader
- mountain leader
- multileader
- nonleader
- opinion leader
- pack leader
- party leader
- patrol leader
- playleader
- puppet leader
- religious leader
- ringleader
- ring leader
- senior patrol leader
Phrases with leader
- tab leader
- war leader
- band leader
- Dear Leader
- loss leader
- wood leader
- house leader
- small leader
- water leader
- world leader
- leader boards
- supreme leader
7 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with leader
Questions about leader
- What does leader mean?
- Leader means any person who leads or directs.
- What is leader in Hindi?
- Leader in Hindi is नेता (netā), मुखिया (mukhiyā), अगुआ (aguā). See Leader meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use leader in a sentence?
- My obligation as a leader of the Korean people is to achieve unification of our country by peaceful means if possible but by force if necessary.
- What part of speech is leader?
- Leader can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce leader?
- Leader is pronounced /ˈliː.də(ɹ)/ (UK).
- What is the plural of leader?
- The plural of leader is leaders.
Words near leader in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: leader (page history and authors); Leader (page history and authors); कर्णधार (Marathi) (page history and authors); നടത്തിപ്പുകാരി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); leader (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਆਗੂ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); આગેવાન (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ପତି (Odia) (page history and authors); ঘাই (Assamese) (page history and authors); कर्णधार (Nepali) (page history and authors). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-leader.ogg.
Cite this entry: “leader.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leader. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.