Leftover

How to spell leftover

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce leftover

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does leftover mean?

1. nounSomething, especially food, that remains after the rest has been used or eaten.
2. adjectiveRemaining after the rest has been used, eaten, or dealt with.

Leftover in a sentence

• noun

  She packed the leftover into a container for tomorrow's lunch.

• adjective

  We used the leftover paint to touch up the skirting boards.

• noun

  The cold leftover from the roast made a quick dinner.

• adjective

  There was just enough leftover rice for a small portion.

Where does leftover come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound, joining 'left' to 'over'. The 'left' here is the past participle of the verb 'leave', which descends from Old English 'læfan', meaning 'to allow to remain' or 'to bequeath', a verb shared across the Germanic languages. The 'over' part comes from Old English 'ofer', meaning 'above' or 'in excess', and in this phrase it carries the sense of something remaining once a portion has been used up. The phrasal expression 'to be left over', meaning to remain after the rest is gone, was common well before it fused into a single word. The combined noun and adjective 'leftover' is comparatively modern, becoming established in everyday English during the nineteenth century, especially in talk of surplus food. Because it is simply 'left' plus 'over', the spelling holds no real surprise: write the two familiar words back to back with no hyphen.

How the word is built

• left (past participle of 'leave', meaning remaining)
• over (adverb/particle indicating excess or remainder)