leam
/liːm/
leam verb: to gleam; shine; glow.
Verb
leam (third-person singular simple present leams, present participle leaming, simple past and past participle leamed)
Noun (1)
leam (plural leams)
- A gleam or flash of light; a glow or glowing.
- The Leams of the morning sun streamed through the half-closed shutters1816, [Walter Scott], The Antiquary. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and...
Noun (2)
leam (plural leams)
- A cord or strap for leading a dog.
- The horsemen spreading themselves along the side of the cover, waited untill the keeper entered, leading his ban-dog; a large blood-hound tied in a leam or band, from which he takes his name.1808, Joseph Strutt, [Walter Scott], “Section [IX]. Chapter II.”, in [Walter Scott], editor, Queenhoo-Hall, a Romance: And Ancient Times, a Drama. […], volume IV, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne &...
Proper noun capitalized: Leam
IPA/lɛm/
Leam
- A river in England that rises in Northamptonshire, before flowing through Warwickshire and joining the Warwickshire Avon near Warwick.
- A hamlet in Grindleford parish, Derbyshire Dales district, Derbyshire, England (OS grid ref SK2379).
- Leamington Spa
- Synonyms:
- Lem
Synonyms of leam
Forms of leam
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | leams |
| present participle | leaming |
| past participle | leamed |
| past | leamed |
| alternative form | leem |
| alternative form | leme |
| Noun | |
| plural | leams |
Origin of leam
From Middle English lemen, from Old English līeman, from Proto-West Germanic *liuhmijan, from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“light, bright”).
From Middle English leme, from Old English lēoma (“ray of light, beam, radiance, gleam, glare, lightning”), from Proto-Germanic *leuhmô (“light, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *leuk- (“light, bright”). Cognate with Icelandic ljómi (“gleam, ray, beam, flash of light”), Latin lumen (“light”).
See leamer, lien.
Words formed from leam
Words that rhyme with leam
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- upstream
- deem
- dream
- scream
- team
- academe
- bream
- downstream
- esteem
- forebeam
- supreme
- teem
- A team
- ice cream
- under one's own steam
- abeam
- addeem
- astream
- beseem
- centime
- decime
- deme
- fleam
- inseam
- Karim
- preem
- rheme
- seem
- agleam
- breme
- buffer beam
- distream
- foredream
- haem
- heme
- Kareem
- kilim
- leme
- let off steam
- meem
- misesteem
- misseem
- neem
- on stream
- prime
- redream
- reem
- reim
Questions about leam
- What does leam mean?
- Leam means to gleam; shine; glow.
- What part of speech is leam?
- Leam can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce leam?
- Leam is pronounced /liːm/.
- What is the past tense of leam?
- The past tense of leam is leamed.
Words near leam in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: leam (page history and authors); Leam (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-leam.oga.
Cite this entry: “leam.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leam. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.