Leased

How to spell leased

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce leased

What does leased mean?

1. verbGranted or held the use of property, equipment, or land for a fixed period in exchange for payment.

Leased in a sentence

• The company leased three floors of the office tower for five years.

• They leased a delivery van rather than buying one outright.

Where does leased come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the past tense of the verb 'lease', which arrived in English through Anglo-French legal language in the 1400s. It traces back to the Old French verb 'laissier', meaning 'to let go', 'to allow', or 'to leave behind', which in turn descends from the Latin 'laxare', meaning 'to loosen' or 'to slacken'. That Latin verb was built on 'laxus', meaning 'loose' or 'slack', the same root that gives us 'lax' and 'relax'. The legal sense developed from the idea of a landowner 'letting go' of property to a tenant for a set time in return for rent. The spelling keeps the 'ea' from 'lease', which is exactly why it can be confused in writing with its homophone 'least', even though that word comes from an entirely separate Old English source.

How the word is built

• lease (to let property for rent)
• -ed (past tense suffix)

Words that sound like leased

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• least: The smallest in amount, degree, or importance.