Leave

How to spell leave

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce leave

What does leave mean?

1. verbTo go away from a place or person.
2. verbTo allow something to stay in a particular state or place.
3. nounPermitted time away from work or duty.

Leave in a sentence

• verb

  The last train will leave the station at midnight.

• verb

  Please leave the door open for the delivery driver.

• noun

  She applied for two weeks of annual leave.

• verb

  She planned to leave the office early on Friday.

• verb

  He chose to leave the decision to the committee.

• noun

  The soldier returned to base after his leave ended.

Where does leave come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English verb læfan, meaning 'to let remain' or 'to bequeath', which in turn grew from a Germanic root tied to the idea of what is left over or remaining behind. That same root gives us the words 'left' (the hand that remains when the other acts) and the noun 'relic', and it connects to the notion of a remainder or surplus. Over the centuries the sense widened from simply leaving something behind to the modern meanings of departing from a place and allowing a thing to stay as it is. The separate noun sense, meaning permission or sanctioned absence, comes from a related Old English word leaf, meaning 'permission' or 'leave granted', which is also the source of the polite phrase 'by your leave'. The two ideas eventually settled under the single spelling, so the same four-letter word now covers both going away and being given permission to be away.

How the word is built

• leav- (from Old English læfan: to let remain)
• -e (stem ending)