leader
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈliː.də(ɹ)/
ipa: /ˈli.dɚ/
ipa: [ˈli.ɾɚ]
homophone: liter
homophone: litre
homophone: lieder
rhymes: -iːdə(ɹ)
Forms: form: leaders
Etymology: From Middle English leder, ledere, from Old English lǣdere (“leader”), from Proto-West Germanic *laidijārī (“leader”), equivalent to lead + -er. Cognate with Scots ledar, leidar (“leader”), West Frisian lieder (“leader”), Dutch leider (“leader”), German Leiter (“leader, conductor, manager”), Danish leder (“leader, manager”), Swedish ledare (“leader, conductor, director”), Icelandic leiðari (“leader, conductor”).
Senses: examples: text: In an era when political leaders promise deliverance from decline through America’s purported preeminence in scientific research, the news that science is in deep trouble in the United States has been as unwelcome as a diagnosis of leukemia following the loss of health insurance.
ref: 2012 January 23, Philip E. Mirowski, “Harms to Health from the Pursuit of Profits”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 04 Apr 2012, page 87:
glosses: Any person who leads or directs.
examples: text: Follow the leader.
glosses: Any person who leads or directs.
One who goes first.
examples: text: We elected her team leader.
text: America needs not only an administrator, but a leader - a pathfinder, a blazer of the trail to the high road that will avoid the bottomless morass of crass materialism that has engulfed so many of the great civilizations of the past.
ref: 1928, Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Happy Warrior Alfred E. Smith, Houghton Mifflin, →OCLC, →OL, page 40:
text: On the other hand, I must think of Korea and, particularly, of the three million enslaved Koreans in the North. My obligation as a leader of the Korean people is to achieve unification of our country by peaceful means if possible but by force if necessary.
ref: 1978, Richard Nixon, quoting Syngman Rhee, RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 127:
text: The leader is the man who knows the way of the overlords but identifies with the life of the oppressed.
ref: 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 195:
glosses: Any person who leads or directs.
One having authority to direct.
synonyms: chief
chieftain
commander
examples: Leader of the House of Commons
Senate Majority Leader
glosses: Any person who leads or directs.
One who leads a political party or group of elected party members; sometimes used in titles.
examples: text: The company is the leader in home remodeling in the county.
glosses: Any person who leads or directs.
A person or organization that leads in a certain field in terms of excellence, success, etc.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: Any person who leads or directs.
A performer who leads a band, choir, or a section of an orchestra.
synonyms: conductor
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: Any person who leads or directs.
The first violin in a symphony orchestra; the concertmaster.
examples: text: The gesture of licking and nipping a leader's muzzle is similar to the food-begging behavior of wolf pups and may be related to it.
ref: 1987, Sylvia A. Johnson with Alice Aamodt, Wolf Pack: Tracking Wolves in the Wild, page 41:
glosses: An animal that leads.
The dominant animal in a pack of animals, such as wolves or lions.
synonyms: alpha
pack leader
examples: text: Still there are many passages in his [Donne's] writings, where it is plain that he forgot to pull in his leaders; and they gallop away with him at times over hill and dale, over ploughed land and waste.
ref: 1846, Julius Charles Hare, “On the Comforter's conviction of Righteousness”, in The mission of the Comforter, and other sermons with Notes:
glosses: An animal that leads.
An animal placed in advance of others, especially on a team of horse, oxen, or dogs.
examples: text: How proud felt Pierre: In fancy’s eye, he saw the horse-ghosts a-tandem in the van; “These are but wheelers”—cried young Pierre—“the leaders are the generations.”
ref: 1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or The Ambiguities:
glosses: An animal that leads.
Either of the two front horses of a team of four in front of a carriage.
antonyms: wheeler
examples: text: A strong central leader may result in essentially horizontal branches resembling a "telephone pole."
ref: 1975, David J. De Laubenfels, Mapping the world's vegetation: regionalization of formations and flora, page 82:
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
synonyms: guide
conductor
glosses: Someone or something that leads or conducts.
A fast-growing terminal shoot of a woody plant.
synonyms: guide
conductor
glosses: Someone or something that leads or conducts.
A pipe for conducting rain water from a roof to a cistern or to the ground.
topics: journalism
media
synonyms: guide
conductor
glosses: Someone or something that leads or conducts.
The first, or the principal, editorial article in a newspaper; a leading or main editorial article; a lead story.
topics: fishing
hobbies
lifestyle
synonyms: guide
conductor
glosses: Someone or something that leads or conducts.
A section of line between the main fishing line and the snell of a hook, intended to be more resistant to bites and harder for a fish to detect than the main fishing line.
examples: text: If you need to reload film, the cassette can be rewound slightly by turning the hub located on one end of its spool. Do not rewind so much that the leader disappears into the cassette.
ref: 2011, Rebekah Modrak, Bill Anthes, Reframing Photography: Theory and Practice:
topics: broadcasting
film
media
printing
publishing
television
synonyms: guide
conductor
glosses: Someone or something that leads or conducts.
A piece of material at the beginning or end of a reel or roll to allow the material to be threaded or fed onto something, as a reel of film onto a projector or a roll of paper onto a rotary printing press.
examples: text: The leader only runs three seconds, but it acts like a drop curtain in a theater.
ref: 1913, Epes Winthrop Sargent, The Technique of the Photoplay, New York, page 15:
topics: broadcasting
cinematography
film
media
television
synonyms: guide
conductor
glosses: Someone or something that leads or conducts.
An intertitle.
topics: business
marketing
synonyms: guide
conductor
glosses: Someone or something that leads or conducts.
A loss leader or a popular product sold at a normal price.
topics: media
printing
publishing
synonyms: guide
conductor
glosses: Someone or something that leads or conducts.
A type having a dot or short row of dots upon its face.
topics: media
printing
publishing
synonyms: guide
conductor
glosses: Someone or something that leads or conducts.
A row of dots, periods, or hyphens, used in tables of contents, etc., to lead the eye across a space to the right word or number.
examples: text: when two wheels geer together, the one which communicates the motion to the other is called the driver or leader; and the wheel impelled is the follower
ref: 1852, D. Gilbert, “Geering”, in Appleton's dictionary of machines, mechanics, engine-work, and engineering, page 786:
topics: fishing
hobbies
lifestyle
synonyms: guide
conductor
glosses: Someone or something that leads or conducts.
A net for leading fish into a pound, weir, etc.
topics: business
mining
synonyms: guide
conductor
glosses: Someone or something that leads or conducts.
A branch or small vein, not important in itself, but indicating the proximity of a better one.
topics: nautical
transport
synonyms: guide
conductor
glosses: Someone or something that leads or conducts.
A block of hard wood pierced with suitable holes for leading ropes in their proper places.
topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
synonyms: guide
conductor
driver
drive wheel
glosses: Someone or something that leads or conducts.
The drive wheel in any kind of machinery.
topics: climatology
meteorology
natural-sciences
synonyms: guide
conductor
glosses: Someone or something that leads or conducts.
The path taken by electrons from a cloud to ground level, determining the shape of a bolt of lightning.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: academy leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: ape leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: archleader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: arch-leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: bandleader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: bearleader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: bear leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: cheerleader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: chip leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: choirleader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: clubhouse leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: coleader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: deckplate leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: destroyer leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: e-leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: fairleader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: fleet leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: follow my leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: follow-the-leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: follow the leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: foreleader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: gangleader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: gloomleader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: grassroots leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: group leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: houseleader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leaderboard
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leader board
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leaderess
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leaderette
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leaderfag
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leaderful
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leaderine
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leaderish
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leaderless
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leaderlike
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leaderly
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leaderman
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leader of the free world
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leader of the opposition
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leader sequence
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: leadership
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: majority leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: market leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: micronational leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: minority leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: mountain leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: multileader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: nonleader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: opinion leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: pack leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: party leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: patrol leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: playleader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: puppet leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: religious leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: ringleader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: ring leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: senior patrol leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: small leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: spiritual leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: squadron leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: subleader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: supreme leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: tab leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: thought leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: thought-leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: war leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: water leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: wood leader
sense: Terms derived from leader (noun)
word: world leader
Related terms: baron
baroness
conductor
duke
duchess
emperor
empress
follower
general
governor
king
queen
mayor
monarch
president
sergeant