leg

/lɛɡ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/leɡ/

leg noun: a limb or appendage that an animal uses for support or locomotion on land. Also the alternative spelling of leg..

Noun

leg (plural legs)

A limb or appendage that an animal uses for support or locomotion on land.
- Insects have six legs.
In humans, the lower limb extending from the groin to the ankle.
- Dan won't be able to come to the party, since he broke his leg last week and is now on crutches.
The portion of the lower limb of a human that extends from the knee to the ankle.
A part of garment, such as a pair of trousers/pants, that covers a leg.
- The left leg of these jeans has a tear.
Synonyms:

pant leg, pantleg
A rod-like protrusion from an inanimate object, such as a piece of furniture, supporting it from underneath.
- the legs of a chair or table
(figuratively) Something that supports.
- This observation is an important leg of my argument.
A stage of a journey, race etc.
- After six days, we're finally in the last leg of our cross-country trip.
- They were travelling on the last leg of a trip which was supposed to end in Hawaii.2026 July 28, Nicholas Muhoro, “The Open Water True Story: How Tom and Eileen Lonergan Were Left Behind at Sea”, in Skip Boring, archived from the original on 29 Jul 2026
A distance that a sailing vessel does without changing the sails from one side to the other.
One side of a multiple-sided (often triangular) course in a sailing race.
A single game or match played in a tournament or other sporting contest.
- A stunning performance from the Republic of Ireland all but sealed progress to Euro 2012 as they crushed nine-man Estonia 4-0 in the first leg of the qualifying play-off tie in A Le Coq Arena in Tallinn.2011 November 11, Rory Houston, “Estonia 0-4 Republic of Ireland”, in RTE Sport
One of the two sides of a right triangle that is not the hypotenuse.

Synonyms:

cathetus
One of the two equal sides of an isosceles triangle.

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One of the branches of a hyperbola or other curve which extend outward indefinitely.
(plural-normally) The ability of something to persist or succeed over a long period of time.
- This proposal has no legs. Almost everyone opposes it.
- I’m trying to go with my head and focus on the first guy, because this could be a relationship with legs.2020 February 2, “One is a great guy; the other is good in bed. So who do I choose?”, in The Guardian
(UK, archaic, slang) A disreputable sporting character; a blackleg.
An extension of a steam boiler downward, in the form of a narrow space between vertical plates, sometimes nearly surrounding the furnace and ash pit, and serving to support the boiler.

Synonyms:

water leg
In a grain elevator, the case containing the lower part of the belt which carries the buckets.
(attributive) Denotes the half of the field on the same side as the batsman's legs; the left side for a right-handed batsman.
- ;
- Ponsonby-Smythe hit a thumping drive through the leg fielders.
Synonyms:

on

Antonyms:

off
A branch or lateral circuit connecting an instrument with the main line.
A branch circuit; one phase of a polyphase system.
An underlying instrument of a derivatives strategy.
(US, slang) An army soldier assigned to a paratrooper unit who has not yet been qualified as a paratrooper.
- Which was lower than whale shit in the eyes of any paratrooper; it would have been a disgrace to be a leg.2019, Elliot Murphy, A Vietnam Story, page 94
(archaic) A gesture of submission; a bow or curtsey. Chiefly in phrase make a leg.
- Hickman came in, making his legs, and stroking his cravat and ruffles.1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter LXXIV”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn...
A column, as a unit of length of text as laid out.
- A leg is one column of a story. It has two legs if it is set in two columns and three legs if it is set in three columns. Avoid legs longer than 10 inches and shorter than 1 inch.2015, Homer L. Hall, Megan Fromm, Aaron Manfull, Student Journalism & Media Literacy, page 266
Synonym of leg up (“forming a step for a person's feet with one's hands”).
- The street was deserted. We acted quickly. Josiah gave me a leg. I threw my jacket over the broken glass […]1902, The Idler: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume 21, page 737
Synonyms:

leg up
An individual bet in a parlay (a series of bets where the stake and winnings are cumulatively carried forward).
- If one leg from your 2-way parlay pushes and the other wins, your parlay bet wins and is paid off as if it's a straight bet (paying -110 or whatever the odds were).2020, Swain Scheps, Sports Betting For Dummies, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., →ISBN, page 265
(archaic, slang) Synonym of blackleg (“a gambling cheat”).

Synonyms:

blackleg

Verb

leg (third-person singular simple present legs, present participle legging, simple past and past participle legged)

To remove the legs from an animal carcass.
To build legs onto a platform or stage for support.
To put a series of three or more options strikes into the stock market.
To apply force using the leg (as in 'to leg a horse').
To thrust up or raise via the legs; to give a leg-up to.
- I was led along to a big lanky thing, and with my heart thumping I was legged on to his back.1933, Frank Clune, Try Anything Once, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 31

Also used as

leg is also the alternative spelling of leg..

leg meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

leg in Hindi

lower limb from groin to ankle: पांव pāmv, पैर pair, पाया pāyā, टांग ṭāṅg, टाँग ṭāṅg, पाँव pā̃v

leg in Tamil

lower limb from groin to ankle: கால் kāl

leg in Marathi

lower limb from groin to ankle: पाय pāy

leg in Urdu

lower limb from groin to ankle: پَیر pair, پایَہ pāya, پاؤں pāõ, ٹان٘گ ṭāṅg

More languagesFewer languages

leg in Bengali: পা pa, ঠেং ṭheṅ
leg in Telugu: కాలు kālu, అంచె añce
leg in Malayalam: കാല് kāl
leg in Kannada: ಕಾಲು kālu
leg in Punjabi: ਲੱਤ latta
leg in Gujarati: પગ pag
leg in Odia: ଗୋଡ
leg in Sanskrit: पाद pāda, टङ्क ṭaṅka
leg in Sinhala: කකුල kakula
leg in Assamese: ভৰি bhori, ঠেং theṅ, পাৱ paw, কদম kodom
leg in Nepali: टाँग ṭā̃g, खुट्टा khuṭṭā
leg in Pashto: پښه pẍa
leg in Tagalog: binti
leg in Arabic: رِجْل rijl, سَاق sāq, رجل regl, ريل rīl
leg in Malay: kaki
leg in Indonesian: tungkai, kaki, tungkai bawah
leg in Persian: پا pâ, لِنْگ leng, پوژِه puže
leg in Thai: ขา kǎa, ด้านประกอบมุมฉาก dâan-bprà-gɔ̀ɔp-mum-chàak
leg in Vietnamese: chân, giò, cẳng
leg in Myanmar: ခြေထောက် hkrehtauk

Examples of leg in a sentence

Deer spring with their hind legs, using their front hooves to steady themselves.
After the accident, her right leg was slightly shorter than her left.
His left leg was blown off after he stepped on a mine.

All 40 example sentences with leg

Synonyms of leg

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of leg

Forms of leg

Noun
plural	legs
alternative form	legge
Verb
third-person singular present	legs
present participle	legging
past participle	legged
past	legged

Past tense of leg: legged

Plural of leg: legs

Origin of leg

From Middle English leg, legge, from Old Norse leggr (“leg, calf, bone of the arm or leg, hollow tube, stalk”), from Proto-Germanic *lagjaz, *lagwijaz (“leg, thigh”) (see it for more). Cognate with Scots leg (“leg”), Icelandic leggur (“leg, limb”), Norwegian Bokmål legg (“leg”), Norwegian Nynorsk legg (“leg”), Swedish lägg (“leg, shank, shaft”), Danish læg (“leg”), Lombardic lagi (“thigh, shank, leg”), Latin lacertus (“limb, arm”), Persian لنگ (leng). Upon borrowing, mostly displaced the native Old English term sċanca (Modern English shank).

Phrases with leg

131 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with leg

19 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about leg

What does leg mean?: Leg means a limb or appendage that an animal uses for support or locomotion on land.
What is leg in Hindi?: Leg in Hindi is पांव (pāmv), पैर (pair), पाया (pāyā). See Leg meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is leg?: Leg can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce leg?: Leg is pronounced /lɛɡ/.
What is the plural of leg?: The plural of leg is legs.

Words near leg in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: leg (page history and authors); leg (Odia, 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-leg.ogg, en-us-leg.ogg, en-au-leg.ogg.

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