Left over or leftover?
left over is an adjective meaning “Alternative form of leftover”; leftover is an adjective meaning “Remaining; left behind; extra; odd; in reserve”. left over is written as two words and leftover as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between left over and leftover?
| left over | leftover | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, verb | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Alternative form of leftover | Remaining; left behind; extra; odd; in reserve Something left behind; an excess or remainder Remaining after a meal is complete or eaten for a later meal or snack |
| Example | The yard was filled with damaged and left-over automobile parts | Do you want some of the leftover supplies from the event? |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | not recorded |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 2.5 times per million words |
Sources: left over and leftover in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of left over and leftover
left over
- 1
Alternative form of leftover
- 2
Alternative form of leftover
The yard was filled with damaged and left-over automobile parts
leftover
- 1
Remaining; left behind; extra; odd; in reserve
Do you want some of the leftover supplies from the event?
- 2
Something left behind; an excess or remainder
It's a leftover from yesterday, but it's still perfectly good
- 3
Remaining after a meal is complete or eaten for a later meal or snack
Not leftovers again!
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, left over or leftover?
left over is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; leftover 2.5 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search left over vs leftover?
“left over vs leftover” is searched about 90 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“leftover vs left over”, “left over or leftover”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.