Let

How to spell let

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce let

What does let mean?

1. verbTo allow or permit something to happen.
2. verbTo rent out a property to a tenant in exchange for payment.
3. nounIn tennis or squash, a serve or rally that must be replayed because of interference.

Let in a sentence

• verb

  The manager agreed to let the team finish early on Friday.

• verb

  The landlord decided to let the upstairs flat to a young couple.

• noun

  The umpire called a let when the serve clipped the net cord.

• verb

  Please let me know when the parcel arrives.

• verb

  They hope to let the cottage to holidaymakers each summer.

• noun

  A let is played again without any penalty to the server.

Where does let come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a very old native English word, descended from the Old English verb lætan, which meant 'to allow', 'to leave behind', or 'to permit to remain'. It traces back to a Germanic root shared with the Dutch laten and the German lassen, all carrying the sense of letting something happen or releasing one's grip on it. Curiously, an older and now nearly opposite meaning, 'to hinder' or 'to obstruct', survives in the legal phrase 'without let or hindrance' and in the tennis term, where a let is a serve that is blocked and must be replayed. The everyday meaning of granting permission has dominated since the medieval period. The British use of let for renting out property also grows from the original idea of allowing someone the use of something.

How the word is built

• let (a single Old English root verb meaning 'to allow' or 'to leave'; no prefix or suffix)