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lease

noun · verb

Simple meaning

An interest in land granting exclusive use or occupation of real estate for a limited period.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

lees
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈlis

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. formallaw

    An interest in land granting exclusive use or occupation of real estate for a limited period; a leasehold.

  2. The contract or deed under which such an interest is granted.

  3. An interest granting exclusive use of any thing, such as a car or boat.

  4. The period of such an interest.

  5. The document containing such a contract or deed.

  6. An open pasture or common.

verb

  1. Hold under a lease or rental agreement; of goods and services

  2. intransitive

    To glean, gather up leavings.

  3. transitive

    To pick, select, pick out; to pick up.

  4. transitiveinformal

    To hold a lease as a tenant; to rent.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (formal, law) An interest in land granting exclusive use or occupation of real estate for a limited period; a leasehold.

Used this way, lease is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Law/legal
  • Government/politics
  • Academic writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Interest / contract

year lease

Hold

lease agreement

Other combinations

operating leasenew leaselease termlease contractcapital lease

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • take

    Money that is taken in, (legal or illegal) proceeds, income.

  • rental

    A player traded to a team with a year or less on his contract.

  • letting

    The award of a public contract.

  • charter

    A contract for the commercial leasing of a vessel, or space on a vessel.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • leasedadjectiveInflected form

    Hired for the exclusive temporary use of a group of travelers.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • lease givernounCompound term

    Someone who grants a lease.

  • lease-lendnounCompound term

    The transfer of goods and services to an ally to aid in a common cause.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • leaseholdnounRelated term

    Land or property held under a lease.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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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.