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PlainSpell

leave

/ˈliːv/verb, noun

leave is spelled L-E-A-V-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 219 times per million words in written English, the 460th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, leave means “To cause or allow (something) to remain as available; to refrain from taking (something) away; to stop short of consuming or otherwise depleting…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in leave?

Letters5: L-E-A-V-E
Syllables1
In writing219 times per million words; the 460th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

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).

How common is leave?

Leave appears 219 times per million words in written English, the 460th 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 leave?

  • /ˈliːv/
  • [ˈlɪi̯v]

Leave has one syllable.

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

Forms of leave

  • leaves present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • leaving participle, present
  • left participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • leaved participle, past

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

What does leave mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To cause or allow (something) to remain as available; to refrain from taking (something) away; to stop short of consuming or otherwise depleting (something) entirely.

    I left my car at home and took a bus to work.

  2. 2

    To cause, to result in.

    The lightning left her dazzled for several minutes.

  3. 3

    To put; to place; to deposit; to deliver, with a sense of withdrawing oneself.

    Leave your hat in the hall.

  4. 4

    To let be or do without interference.

    I left him to his reflections.

  5. 5

    To depart from; to end one's connection or affiliation with.

    His bow and arrow never leaves him.

  6. 6

    To end one's membership in (a group); to terminate one's affiliation with (an organization); to stop participating in (a project).

  7. 7

    To die (the object denotes those affected by the death).

  8. 8

    To depart; to go away from a certain place or state.

    I think you'd better leave.

  9. 9

    To give leave to; allow; permit; let; grant.

  10. 10

    rareTo produce leaves or foliage.

  11. 11

    obsoleteTo raise; to levy.

noun

  1. 1

    The action of the batsman not attempting to play at the ball.

    He made 45 leaves in his innings of 64.

  2. 2

    The arrangement of balls in play that remains after a shot is made (which determines whether the next shooter – who may be either the same player, or an opponent – has good options, or only poor ones).

  3. 3

    The tiles remaining on a player's rack after his or her turn.

    I didn't score much, but LING was a good leave.

  4. 4

    Permission to be absent; time away from one's work.

    I've just been given three weeks' leave by my boss – I don't think I still have some leave owing to me.

  5. 5

    datedPermission.

    Might I beg leave to accompany you?

  6. 6

    datedFarewell, departure.

    I took my leave of the gentleman without a backward glance.

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

How do you abbreviate leave?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of leave: lve..

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

Leave in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchlaisser (to cause to remain as available, not take away…), quitter (to depart from, end one's connection or…), partir (to depart (intransitive)), permission, permis (permission to be absent), congé (absence from work)
Germanlassen, zurücklassen (to cause to remain as available, not take away…), verlassen, davonmachen (to depart from, end one's connection or…), weggehen (to depart (intransitive)), hinterlassen (to transfer possession after death)
Portuguesedeixar (to cause to remain as available, not take away…), partir, sair (to depart from, end one's connection or…), permissão (permission to be absent), licença, afastamento (absence from work)
Spanishdejar (to cause to remain as available, not take away…), permiso, licencia (permission to be absent), excedencia (absence from work), legar (to transfer possession after death), delejar (to give (something) to someone; to deliver…)

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 leave come from?

From Middle English leven, from Old English lǣfan (“to leave”), from Proto-West Germanic *laibijan, from Proto-Germanic *laibijaną (“to let stay, leave”), causative of *lībaną (“to stay, remain”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to stick; fat”).

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

What to look up after leave