leader

From Middle English leder, ledere, from Old English lǣdere (“leader”), equivalent to lead +‎ -er. Cognate with Scots ledar, leidar (“leader”), West Frisian lieder (“leader”), Dutch leider (“leader”), German Leiter (“leader, conductor, manager”), Danish leder (“leader, manager”), Swedish ledare (“leader, conductor, director”), Icelandic leiðari (“leader, conductor”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈliː.də(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈlidɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  • Homophone: liter
• Rhymes: -iːdə(ɹ)
• Homophone: lieder

leader (plural leaders)

1. any person that leads or directs
   • 2012 January 1, Philip E. Mirowski, “Harms to Health from the Pursuit of Profits”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 1, page 87:

     In an era when political leaders promise deliverance from decline through America’s purported preeminence in scientific research, the news that science is in deep trouble in the United States has been as unwelcome as a diagnosis of leukemia following the loss of health insurance.

   1. one who goes first

      Follow the leader.

   2. one having authority to direct

      We elected her team leader.

      Synonyms: chief, chieftain, commander

   3. one who leads a political party or group of elected party members; sometimes used in titles

      Leader of the House of Commons

      Senate Majority Leader

   4. a person or organization that leads in a certain field in terms of excellence, success, etc.

      The company is the leader in home remodeling in the county.

   5. (music) a performer who leads a band, choir, or a section of an orchestra

      Synonym: conductor

   6. (music, Britain) the first violin in a symphony orchestra; the concertmaster
2. an animal that leads
   1. the dominant animal in a pack of animals, such as wolves or lions
      • 1987, Sylvia A. Johnson; Alice Aamodt, Wolf Pack: Tracking Wolves in the Wild‎, page 41:

        The gesture of licking and nipping a leader's muzzle is similar to the food-begging behavior of wolf pups and may be related to it.

      Synonyms: alpha, pack leader

   2. an animal placed in advance of others, especially on a team of horse, oxen, or dogs
      • 1846, Julius Charles Hare, “On the Comforter's conviction of Righteousness”, in The mission of the Comforter, and other sermons with Notes:

        Still there are many passages in his [Donne's] writings, where it is plain that he forgot to pull in his leaders; and they gallop away with him at times over hill and dale, over ploughed land and waste.

3. someone or something that leads or conducts

   (person that leads or conducts): Synonyms: guide, conductor

   1. (botany) a fast-growing terminal shoot of a woody plant
      • 1975, David J. De Laubenfels, Mapping the world's vegetation: regionalization of formations and flora‎, page 82:

        A strong central leader may result in essentially horizontal branches resembling a "telephone pole."

   2. a pipe for conducting rain water from a roof to a cistern or to the ground
   3. (Britain) the first, or the principal, editorial article in a newspaper; a leading or main editorial article; a lead story
   4. (fishing) a section of line between the main fishing line and the snell of a hook, intended to be more resistant to bites and harder for a fish to detect than the main fishing line
   5. a piece of material at the beginning or end of a reel or roll to allow the material to be threaded or fed onto something, as a reel of film onto a projector or a roll of paper onto a rotary printing press
   6. (marketing) a loss leader or a popular product sold at a normal price
   7. (printing) a type having a dot or short row of dots upon its face
   8. (printing, in the plural) a row of dots, periods, or hyphens, used in tables of contents, etc., to lead the eye across a space to the right word or number
   9. (fishing) a net for leading fish into a pound, weir, etc.
      • 1852, D. Gilbert, “Geering”, in Appleton's dictionary of machines, mechanics, engine-work, and engineering‎, page 786:

        when two wheels geer together, the one which communicates the motion to the other is called the driver or leader; and the wheel impelled is the follower

   10. (mining) a branch or small vein, not important in itself, but indicating the proximity of a better one
   11. (nautical) a block of hard wood pierced with suitable holes for leading ropes in their proper places
   12. (engineering) the drive wheel in any kind of machinery

       Synonyms: driver, drive wheel

   13. (meteorology) the path taken by electrons from a cloud to ground level, determining the shape of a bolt of lightning

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:leader.

• dealer, leared, red ale, redeal, relade, relead

Borrowed from English leader.

• IPA^(key): /li.dœʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

leader m (plural leaders)

1. leader

• chef
• dirigeant

• “leader” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• dealer

Borrowed from English leader.

• IPA^(key): /ˈli.der/, [ˈl̺iːd̪er̺]
• Hyphenation: lea‧der

leader m or f (invariable)

1. leader (chief; one in front)

• lederà

leader m or f (plural leaderes)

1. leader