leftovers
noun · n
Form of leftover , plural of leftover.
Simple meaning
Food remaining from a previous meal.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
lehftohverzSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlɛftoʊvɚz
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
Food remaining from a previous meal
“He had leftovers for dinner last night.”
n
Leftovers, also known as Turah, is a 2016 Indonesian drama film directed by Wicaksono Wisnu Legowo.
An American leftist political podcast hosted by Ethan Klein and Hasan Piker on the H3 Podcast.
Surplus foods remaining unconsumed at the end of a meal, which may be put in containers with the intention of eating later.
The uneaten edible remains of a hot or cold meal.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Food remaining from a previous meal
Used this way, leftovers is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
“He had leftovers for dinner last night.”
- 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
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Natural pattern: leftovers for …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use leftovers
- “He had leftovers for dinner last night.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A small part or portion that remains after the main part no longer exists.
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.