Leaf

Pronunciation

• enPR: lÄ“f, IPA: /liːf/
• Rhymes: -iːf

Origin

From Middle English leef, from Old English lēaf, from Proto-Germanic *laubą (compare West Frisian leaf, Low German Loov, Dutch loof, German Laub, Danish løv), from Proto-Indo-European *leup- 'to peel, break off' (compare Irish luibh 'herb', Latin liber 'bast; book', Lithuanian lúoba 'bark', Albanian labë 'rind').

Full definition of leaf

Noun

1. The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants.
• 2013, William E. Conner, An Acoustic Arms Race, Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.
2. Anything resembling the leaf of a plant.
3. A sheet of any substance beaten or rolled until very thin.
   gold leaf
4. A sheet of a book, magazine, etc (consisting of two pages, one on each face of the leaf).
5. (in the plural) Tea leaves.
6. A flat section used to extend the size of a table.
7. A moveable panel, e.g. of a bridge or door, originally one that hinged but now also applied to other forms of movement.
   The train car has one single-leaf and two double-leaf doors per side.
8. (botany) A foliage leaf or any of the many and often considerably different structures it can specialise into.
9. (computing, mathematics) In a tree, a node that has no descendants.
• 2011, John Mongan, ‎Noah Kindler, ‎Eric Giguère, Programming Interviews ExposedThe algorithm pops the stack to obtain a new current node when there are no more children (when it reaches a leaf).
10. The layer of fat supporting the kidneys of a pig, leaf fat.
11. One of the teeth of a pinion, especially when small.

Derived terms

Verb

1. (intransitive) To produce leaves; put forth foliage.

Synonyms

• leave (verb)

Derived terms

Anagrams

• alef
• flea
• Lafe