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PlainSpell

lean

/ˈliːn/verb, noun, adjective

lean is spelled L-E-A-N: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,679th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “lean vs lien” about 50 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, lean means “To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in lean?

Letters4: L-E-A-N
Syllables1
In writing14 times per million words; the 5,679th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is lean?

Lean appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,679th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce lean?

  • /ˈliːn/
  • [ˈlɪi̯n] ~ [ˈlɪ̈i̯n]

Lean has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-lean.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with lean

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

lean vs lien50 G

Sounds like: lien (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with lean?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as lean.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: lane, neal, elan.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of lean

  • leans present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • leaning participle, present
  • leaned participle, past
  • leant UK, participle, past
  • leaner comparative
  • leanest superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does lean mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating.

    a leaning column

  2. 2

    To incline in opinion or desire; to conform in conduct; often with to, toward, etc.

    I’m leaning towards voting Conservative in the next election.

  3. 3

    To rest or rely, for support, comfort, to use as a hard surface for writing, etc.

  4. 4

    To hang outwards.

  5. 5

    To press against.

  6. 6

    To thin out (a fuel-air mixture): to reduce the fuel flow into the mixture so that there is more air or oxygen.

noun

  1. 1

    An inclination away from the vertical.

    The trees had various leans toward gaps in the canopy.

  2. 2

    Meat with no fat on it.

  3. 3

    An organism that is lean in stature.

    The intermediates and leans are the predominant morphotypes found at the SE-NHR seamounts […]

  4. 4

    USslangA recreational drug composed of codeine-promethazine cough syrup mixed with usually soda and associated with the hip-hop culture of the Southern United States.

adjective

  1. 1

    Slim; not fleshy.

  2. 2

    Having little fat.

    lean steak cuts

  3. 3

    Having little extra or little to spare; scanty; meagre.

    a lean budget

  4. 4

    Having a low proportion or concentration of a desired substance or ingredient.

    A lean ore hardly worth mining.

  5. 5

    archaicOf a character which prevents the compositor from earning the usual wages; opposed to fat.

    lean copy, matter, or type

  6. 6

    Efficient, economic, frugal, agile, slimmed-down; pertaining to the modern industrial principles of "lean manufacturing".

    lean management

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Lean in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpencher (to incline), se pencher (to hang outwards), s'appuyer (to rest or rely upon for support), se presser (to press against), mince (being slim, not fleshy), maigre (of meat, having little fat)
Germansich lehnen (to incline), lehnen (to hang outwards), anlehnen (to press against), mager, dürr, schlank (being slim, not fleshy)
Portugueseinclinar (to incline), reclinar-se (to hang outwards), escorar-se, apoiar-se (to rest or rely upon for support), esbelto (being slim, not fleshy), magro (of meat, having little fat)
Spanishinclinarse, debruzar, debruzarse, propender (to incline), declinarse (to hang outwards), apoyarse (to rest or rely upon for support)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does lean come from?

From Middle English lenen (“to lean”), from Old English hleonian, hlinian (“to lean, recline, lie down, rest”), from Proto-West Germanic *hlinēn, from Proto-Germanic *hlināną (“to lean, incline”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley-.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after lean