Word.ws English Dictionary

leading lights

leading lights is the plural of leading light.

Meaning of leading light

Noun

leading light (plural leading lights)

  1. (idiomatic) An acclaimed expert, one of the foremost experts, a luminary.
    • Stephen Hawking is a leading light in physics, people say he's the greatest physicist since Einstein.
  2. (navigation) A light that helps to guide vessels into a port.

Questions about leading lights

What is leading lights the plural of?
Leading lights is the plural of leading light.

Words near leading lights in the dictionary

  1. leading indicator
  2. leading indicators
  3. leading ladies
  4. leading lady
  5. leading light
  6. leading lights
  7. leading line
  8. leading lines
  9. leading man
  10. leading men
  11. leading motive

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leading lights (page history and authors); leading light (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.

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Cite this entry: “leading lights.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leading_lights. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.