leaf

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants.
2. (countable, uncountable) A foliage leaf or any of the many and often considerably different structures it can specialise into.
3. (countable, uncountable) Anything resembling the leaf of a plant.
4. (countable, uncountable) A sheet of a book, magazine, etc. (consisting of two pages, one on each face of the leaf).
5. (countable, uncountable) A sheet of any substance beaten or rolled until very thin.
6. (countable, uncountable) One of the individual flat or curved strips of metal, typically made of spring steel, that make up a leaf spring.
7. (countable, in-plural, uncountable) Tea leaves.
8. (countable, uncountable) A flat section used to extend the size of a table.
9. (countable, uncountable) A moveable panel, e.g. of a bridge or door, originally one that hinged but now also applied to other forms of movement.
10. (countable, uncountable) In a tree, a node that has no descendants.
11. (countable, uncountable) The layer of fat supporting the kidneys of a pig, leaf fat.
12. (countable, uncountable) One of the teeth of a pinion, especially when small.
13. (slang, uncountable) Cannabis.
14. (Internet, countable, humorous, pejorative, sometimes, uncountable) A Canadian person.
15. (countable, uncountable) A particular value of the EAX register when a program runs the CPUID instruction; each leaf represents a different category of information returned about the processor.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To produce leaves; put forth foliage.
2. (transitive) To divide (a vegetable) into separate leaves.
3. (informal, transitive, uncommon) To play a prank on someone by throwing a large clump or collection of leaves at them.

Synonyms

sheet

foliage

page

leaves

🍃

blade

petal

paper

frond

folio

stem

tree leaf

foil

lamina

panel

riff

turn over

leafage

book

📖

lamella

flick

leaflet

lobe

wrapper

twig

flip

leave

sheet of paper

browse

riffle

plate

thumb

folium

creeper

fold

continuation

branch

flower

🌸

chip

magazine

little

cake

🍰

blade of grass

limb

flank

flake

butterfly

🦋

layered

first

1st

lap

fin

Translations

feuille

hoja

Blatt

blad

foglia

folha

φύλλο

folium

yaprak

foglio

fulla

ورقة

folio

Pronounced as (IPA)

/liːf/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: leef

Inherited from Old English: lēaf

Cognate with Western Frisian: leaf

Cognate with Low German: Loov

Cognate with Dutch: loof

Cognate with German: Laub

Cognate with Danish: løv

Cognate with Swedish: löv

Cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk: lauv

Cognate with Icelandic: lauf

Cognate with Irish: luibh

Cognate with Latin: liber

Cognate with Lithuanian: lúoba

Cognate with Albanian: labë

Cognate with Latvian: luba

Cognate with Russian: луб

In summary

From Middle English leef, from Old English lēaf, from Proto-West Germanic *laub, from Proto-Germanic *laubą (“leaf”), from Proto-Indo-European *lowbʰ-o-m, from *lewbʰ- (“leaf, rind”)
See also West Frisian leaf, Low German Loov, Dutch loof, German Laub, Danish løv, Swedish löv, Norwegian Nynorsk lauv, Icelandic lauf; also Irish luibh (“herb”), Latin liber (“bast; book”), Lithuanian lúoba (“bark”), Albanian labë (“rind”), Latvian luba (“plank, board”), Russian луб (lub, “bast”).
(Internet slang: Canadian): In reference to the maple leaf as national symbol.

Sentences

Some folk traditions assign a different attribute to each leaf of a clover .