Leafy

How to spell leafy

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce leafy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does leafy mean?

1. adjectiveHaving many leaves, or shaded and green with abundant foliage.

Leafy in a sentence

• They bought a house on a quiet, leafy street near the park.

• The recipe calls for a generous handful of leafy greens.

Where does leafy come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native English word, built on 'leaf', which comes from the Old English 'leaf' meaning the flat green part of a plant. That noun traces back to a shared Germanic ancestor, related to the Dutch 'loof' and the German 'Laub', all describing foliage. The adjective-forming suffix '-y', also of Old English origin, attaches to nouns to mean 'full of' or 'abounding in', so 'leafy' literally means 'full of leaves'. The word has been in use since the late fourteenth century and has stayed remarkably stable in spelling. The only mild trap is remembering that the silent vowel pairing 'ea' carries the long 'ee' sound, and that adding '-y' simply follows the unchanged noun 'leaf' rather than the plural 'leaves'.

How the word is built

• leaf (from Old English leaf)
• -y (adjective suffix meaning 'full of' or 'characterised by')