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leave

verb · noun

Simple meaning

To go away from a place or a particular state

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

leev
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈliv

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.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To depart; to go away from a certain place or state.

    “At what time does your train leave?”

  2. To depart; to separate from.

  3. transitive

    To depart from; to end one's connection or affiliation with.

  4. transitive

    To cause or allow (something) to remain as available; to refrain from taking (something) away; to stop short of consuming or otherwise depleting (something) entirely.

  5. Move out of or depart from

  6. Remove oneself from an association with or participation in

noun

  1. Permission to be absent; time away from one's work.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To cause or allow (something) to remain as available; to refrain from taking (something) away; to stop short of consuming or otherwise depleting (something) entirely.

Used this way, leave 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
No strong connotation
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 leave

  • “At what time does your train leave?”verb

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • exit

    To go out or go away from a place or situation.

  • lead

    To guide or conduct in a certain course, or to a certain place or end, by making the way known.

  • allow

    To decide (a request) in favour of the party who raised it.

  • depart

    Move away from a place into another direction.

  • quit

    To leave (a place).

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • leavingnounInflected form

    The act of departing.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • leave officeverbCompound term

    Give up or retire from a position.

  • leave outverbCompound term

    Prevent from being included or considered or accepted.

  • leave-takingnounCompound term

    The act of departing politely.

  • leave behindverbCompound term

    Depart and not take along.

  • leave aloneverbCompound term

    Leave unchanged or undisturbed or refrain from taking.

  • leave no stone unturnedverbCompound term

    Search thoroughly and exhaustively.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • earleaved umbrella treenounRelated term

    Small erect deciduous tree with large leaves in coiled formations at branch tips.

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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.