Leg

How to spell leg

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce leg

What does leg mean?

1. nounOne of the limbs on which a person or animal stands and walks.
2. nounA single section or stage of a journey, race, or competition.
3. nounOne of the upright supports that hold up a piece of furniture.

Leg in a sentence

• She rubbed her sore leg after the long run.

• The first leg of the flight took eleven hours.

• One leg of the table was shorter than the rest.

• The dog favoured its injured leg for a week.

• Their team won the home leg of the tie comfortably.

• He tightened the loose leg on the wooden chair.

Where does leg come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This is a borrowing from Old Norse, where the word leggr meant a leg, a limb, or even a bone of the arm or leg. It entered English in the medieval period through contact with Norse settlers, gradually replacing the native Old English word shank for the lower limb. The original Norse sense was broad enough to cover bones generally, which is why related Scandinavian words still refer to the long bones of the body. From the literal limb the meaning spread by analogy to the supports of a table or chair and to a single stage of a journey or race, as if the trip walked along on separate legs. The spelling has stayed short and simple, with the only mild trap being whether the final sound is written g or, mistakenly, gg.

How the word is built

• leg (whole word, from Old Norse leggr: limb, bone)