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PlainSpell

lease

/liːs/noun, verb

lease is spelled L-E-A-S-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,407th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, lease means “An interest in land granting exclusive use or occupation of real estate for a limited period; a leasehold” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of lease is leases.

How many letters and syllables are in lease?

Letters5: L-E-A-S-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing15 times per million words; the 5,407th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is lease?

Lease appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,407th 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 lease?

  • US /liːs/

Lease has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

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

What rhymes with lease?

9 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as lease from its last stressed vowel (/is/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: easel.

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 lease

  • leases plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • leasing participle, present
  • leased participle, past
  • leaze

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

What does lease mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    An interest in land granting exclusive use or occupation of real estate for a limited period; a leasehold.

  2. 2

    An interest granting exclusive use of any thing, such as a car or boat.

  3. 3

    The contract or deed under which such an interest is granted.

  4. 4

    The document containing such a contract or deed.

  5. 5

    The period of such an interest.

  6. 6

    Short for DHCP lease The temporary assignment of an IP address to a networked device.

  7. 7

    An open pasture or common.

  8. 8

    The place at which the warp-threads cross on a loom.

verb

  1. 1

    To grant a lease as a landlord; to let.

  2. 2

    informalTo hold a lease as a tenant; to rent.

    I'm leasing a small apartment in Runcorn for a month while I'm there for work.

  3. 3

    To assign a temporary IP address to (a networked device).

  4. 4

    To accept such an assignment of (an IP address).

  5. 5

    To gather.

  6. 6

    To pick, select, pick out; to pick up.

  7. 7

    To glean.

  8. 8

    To glean, gather up leavings.

  9. 9

    UKTo tell lies; tell lies about; slander; calumniate.

  10. 10

    Alternative form of leese (“to release”)

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

Lease in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcontrat de bail, bail (contract granting use or occupation of property), loyer (period of such a contract)
GermanPacht (contract granting use or occupation of property), pachten (to operate or live in some property or land…)
Spanisharrendamiento, arrendación, leasing (contract granting use or occupation of property), llevanza (period of such a contract)
Portuguesearrendar (to operate or live in some property or land…)

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 lease come from?

From Middle English *lesen, from Anglo-Norman *leser, Old French lesser, laisier (“to let, let go”), partly from Latin laxō (“to loose”) and partly from Old High German lāzan (“to let, let go, release”) (German lassen), cognate with Old English lǣtan (“to allow, let go, leave, rent”) whence let.

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

What to look up after lease