Word: lead Part of Speech: verb Etymology: From Middle English leden, from Old English lǣdan (“to lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laidijan, from Proto-Germanic *laidijaną (“to cause one to go, lead”), causative of Proto-Germanic *līþaną (“to go”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyt- (“to leave, die”). Cognate with West Frisian liede (“to lead”), Dutch leiden (“to lead”), German leiten (“to lead”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål lede (“to lead”), Norwegian Nynorsk leia (“to lead”), Swedish leda (“to lead”), Faroese and Icelandic leiða (“to lead”). Related to Old English līþan (“to go, travel”). Pronunciation: /ˈliːd/, [ˈlɪi̯d] 1. To guide or conduct. Labels: transitive Example: a father leads a child Example: a jockey leads a horse with a halter 2. To guide or conduct. Labels: transitive Example: The guide was able to lead the tourists through the jungle safely. Example: The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way. 3. To guide or conduct. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: A good teacher should lead their students to the right answer. 4. To guide or conduct. Labels: transitive Example: to lead a political party Example: to lead the search team 5. To guide or conduct. Labels: transitive Example: to lead someone to a righteous cause Example: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil 6. To guide or conduct. Labels: transitive Example: The evidence leads me to believe he is guilty. 7. To guide or conduct, as by accompanying, going before, showing, influencing, directing with authority, etc.; to have precedence or preeminence; to be first or chief; — used in most of the senses of the transitive verb. Labels: intransitive 8. To begin, to be ahead. Labels: transitive Example: the big sloop led the fleet of yachts; the Guards led the attack; Demosthenes leads the orators of all ages Example: 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso As Hesperus, that leads the sun his way. 9. To begin, to be ahead. Labels: intransitive Example: The standard-bearers led and the rest of the marchers followed. 10. To begin, to be ahead. Labels: intransitive Example: It leads in the information technology sector. 11. To begin, to be ahead. Labels: transitive Example: to lead trumps Example: He led the ace of spades. 12. To begin, to be ahead. Labels: intransitive 13. To begin, to be ahead. Labels: intransitive 14. To begin, to be ahead. Example: The batter always leads off base. 15. To begin, to be ahead. 16. To begin, to be ahead. Labels: transitive 17. To tend or reach in a certain spatial direction, or to a certain place. Labels: intransitive Example: the path leads to the mill Example: The mountain-foot that leads towards Mantua. 18. To be a cause of. Labels: intransitive Example: gambling leads to other vices Example: Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures. 19. To live or experience (a particular way of life). Labels: transitive, usually Example: That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life. Example: Nor thou with shadow'd hint confuse / A life that leads melodious days. 20. Used in phrasal verbs: lead off, lead on, lead out, lead to (“be the cause of, bring about”), lead up, lead up to. 21. Misspelling of led. Labels: alt-of, misspelling