leather
noun · adjective · verb
Simple meaning
Clothing made from the skin of animals, often worn by motorcycle riders.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
lehtherSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlɛðɚ
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
A tough material produced from the skin of animals, by tanning or similar process, used e.g. for clothing; often denotes leather from cattle when no qualifier specifies otherwise.
plural: leathers
Clothing made from the skin of animals, often worn by motorcycle riders.
A piece of the above used for polishing.
Puréed fruit that has been poured on a flat surface to form a layer, then dehydrated, yielding a dry, thin, pliable food product that resembles a sheet of leather.
adjective
Referring to one who wears leather clothing (motorcycle jacket, chaps over 501 jeans, boots), especially as a sign of sadomasochistic homosexuality.
Referring to an establishment of familial relations through agreed sexual or romantic deviance.
Made of leather.
verb
transitive
To strike forcefully.
Whip with a leather strap
transitive
To spank or beat with a leather belt or strap.
transitive
To cover with leather.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A tough material produced from the skin of animals, by tanning or similar process, used e.g. for clothing; often denotes leather from cattle when no qualifier specifies otherwise.
Used this way, leather 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 leather
- “I bought a new leather jacket that is very soft.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Scaleless domestic carp.
Stout tropical swamp fern (especially tropical America) having large fronds with golden yellow sporangia covering the undersides.
Scandent subshrub of southeastern United States having large red-purple bell-shaped flowers with leathery recurved sepals.
A mild soap for cleansing and conditioning leather.
Implement consisting of a strip of leather.
A soft suede leather formerly from the skin of the chamois antelope but now from sheepskin.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Fabric made to look like leather.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.