Lee

How to spell lee

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce lee

What does lee mean?

1. nounThe side of something that is sheltered from the wind, especially the protected side of a ship or hill.

Lee in a sentence

• The small boat anchored in the lee of the island, out of the wind.

• The climbers ate lunch in the lee of a tall boulder, away from the gusts.

Where does lee come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English hleo, which meant 'shelter, cover, or protection', the warm side away from harm. It belongs to a broad Germanic family of words for warmth and covering, and scholars connect it to roots that also gave rise to ideas of being lukewarm or sheltered. Over the centuries the general sense of 'protection' narrowed in everyday English, and by the sailing era it had settled into its main surviving meaning: the side of a ship, hill, or object that is turned away from the wind and therefore shielded from it. Sailors made the term essential, speaking of the 'lee shore' and of staying in the lee of a headland. The spelling trap is that the word collapsed to a tiny three-letter form that sounds identical to 'lea', the poetic word for a meadow, so the two are constantly muddled in writing.

How the word is built

• lee (from Old English hleo: shelter, protection); a single unanalysable root with no affixes