Lease
nounA contract by which an owner grants the use of property to another for a fixed period in return for payment.
How to spell lease
5 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce lease
What does lease mean?
- nounA contract by which an owner grants the use of property to another for a fixed period in return for payment.
- verbTo grant or take the use of property under a lease in exchange for payment.
Lease in a sentence
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noun
The lease on the flat expires at the end of June.
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verb
The company decided to lease the warehouse rather than buy it.
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noun
They signed a five-year lease for the office space.
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verb
Many farmers lease extra fields during the busy season.
Where does lease come from?
Language of origin: French
The word comes into English from Anglo-Norman French les, a noun from the verb lesser meaning 'to let go' or 'to leave', which itself descends from the Latin laxare, 'to loosen' or 'to release', built on laxus meaning 'loose' or 'slack'. The idea behind it is that an owner loosens their hold on property and lets someone else use it for a time, which is exactly what a tenancy does. English took the legal term in the 1400s to describe a contract granting the use of land or buildings for a set period. The same Latin laxus that loosened its way into 'lease' also gave us 'lax', 'relax', and 'release', all sharing the sense of slackening or letting go. The quiet trap in the spelling is the ending: it is -ease, not -eese or -ese, even though the word rhymes with 'fleece'.
How the word is built
- lease (from Anglo-Norman les, 'a letting' of property), a single root word with no prefix or suffix
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