Word.ws English Dictionary

leaps and bounds

leaps and bounds noun: dramatic improvements.

Noun

leaps and bounds pl (plural only)

  1. (idiomatic, plural, plural-only) Dramatic improvements.
    • “And how did he make his money?”
      “In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds.”1892 [April], A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. X.—The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor.”, in Geo[rge] Newnes, editor, The Strand Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly, volume III...
    • […]although they have made leaps and bounds in some areas, they're still using some of the same medications that they used on my brother 31 years ago with this particular disease[…]1990 March 26, The Larry King Show, via CNN

Adverb

leaps and bounds (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic) Considerably; significantly.
    • Our company has progressed leaps and bounds this year.
    • […] the Afghan War showed that America's ability to project power from a distance had improved leaps and bounds since the 1990 Gulf War.2003, Robyn Lim, The geopolitics of East Asia: the search for equilibrium

leaps and bounds meaning in Arabic

leaps and bounds in Arabic

idiom: considerably
عَلَى قَدَم وَسَاق ʕalā qadam wasāq

Questions about leaps and bounds

What does leaps and bounds mean?
Leaps and bounds means dramatic improvements.
What is leaps and bounds in Arabic?
Leaps and bounds in Arabic is عَلَى قَدَم وَسَاق (ʕalā qadam wasāq). See Leaps and bounds meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is leaps and bounds?
Leaps and bounds can be a noun or an adverb.

Words near leaps and bounds in the dictionary

  1. leaporous
  2. leaprosy
  3. leaprous
  4. leaps
  5. leaps ahead
  6. leaps and bounds
  7. leaps at
  8. leaps for joy
  9. leaps in the dark
  10. leaps into action
  11. leaps of faith

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leaps and bounds (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-au-leaps and bounds.ogg.

Cite this entry: “leaps and bounds.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leaps_and_bounds. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.