leaf
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
leefIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlif
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants.
botany
A foliage leaf or any of the many and often considerably different structures it can specialise into.
A sheet of any substance beaten or rolled until very thin.
A sheet of any written or printed material (especially in a manuscript or book)
One of the individual flat or curved strips of metal, typically made of spring steel, that make up a leaf spring.
plural leaves or leafs
A moveable panel, e.g. of a bridge or door, originally one that hinged but now also applied to other forms of movement.
verb
Produce leaves, of plants
intransitive
To produce leaves; put forth foliage.
transitive
To divide (a vegetable) into separate leaves.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants.
Used this way, leaf is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use leaf
- “A single red leaf fell from the tree onto the grass.”
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.