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left

adjective · adverb · noun

Simple meaning

Being or located on or directed toward the side of the body to the west when facing north.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

lehft
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈlɛft

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.

adjective

  1. Being or located on or directed toward the side of the body to the west when facing north

  2. Anticlockwise, particularly when describing a change in direction or orientation.

adverb

  1. On the left side.

  2. Toward or on the left; also used figuratively

  3. Towards the political left.

noun

  1. Location near or direction toward the left side; i.e. the side to the north when a person or object faces east

  2. The hand that is on the left side of the body

  3. The left hand or fist.

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: Being or located on or directed toward the side of the body to the west when facing north

Used this way, left 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

Nearby words

  • leftish , rarer, so it draws attention

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.

left handleft side

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • leftistnounPerson or profession

    A person who belongs to the political left.

  • leftynounDerived noun

    A person who uses the left hand with greater skill than the right.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • left fieldernounCompound term

    The person who plays left field.

  • left gastric arterynounCompound term

    A branch of the celiac artery that supplies the lesser curvature of the stomach and the abdominal part of the esophagus.

  • left gastric veinnounCompound term

    Arises from a union of veins from the gastric cardia.

  • left handnounCompound term

    The hand that is on the left side of the body.

  • left-handedadjectiveCompound term

    Using or intended for the left hand.

  • left-handed pitchernounCompound term

    A baseball pitcher who throws the ball with the left hand.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • leftfieldnounRelated term

    The piece of ground in the outfield on the catcher's left.

  • lefteye floundernounRelated term

    Flatfishes with both eyes on the left side of the head.

  • lefteyed floundernounRelated term

    Flatfishes with both eyes on the left side of the head.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: being or located on

leftishRareport

Antonyms

Sense: being or located on

right

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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.