Leader

How to spell leader

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce leader

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does leader mean?

1. nounA person who guides, directs, or commands a group, organisation, or movement.
2. nounA person, animal, or thing that is ahead of all others in a race or competition.

Leader in a sentence

• The team chose an experienced leader to coordinate the project.

• The early leader in the marathon faded badly on the final hill.

• As union leader, she negotiated the new contract.

• Their product remains the clear market leader in the region.

Where does leader come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from Old English lædan, meaning 'to lead, guide, or bring along', a verb rooted in the broader Germanic family alongside Dutch leiden and German leiten. The underlying sense was strikingly physical: to make someone or something travel a path, to set the course that others would follow. By adding the agent suffix -er, English produced 'leader' for the person who goes in front and shows the way, a form recorded by the early medieval period. The same root also gave us the noun 'load' and the word 'lode', as in a vein of ore or the 'lodestar' that sailors steered by. Because the verb 'lead' shares its spelling with the metal lead (a quite separate word, though pronounced like 'led'), the steady -ea- spelling here can briefly confuse writers, even though 'leader' simply stacks a regular -er onto 'lead'.

How the word is built

• lead (to guide, go in front)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)