lede

/liːd/

//liːd// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"lede" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“lede” is uncommon English (frequency #76,937 among 2,297 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#76,937
frequency rank, English
2,297
“L” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A man; a person.

Corpus desk

Index EN-lede · lede · English

lede · rank #76,937 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #76,937
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,297
  • PHOTO-FINISH Ledoux

Nearest frequency peer: Ledoux (+1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “lede”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “lede” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for lede
PropertyValue
Headwordlede
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/liːd/
Letters4
Frequency rank#76,937
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “lede” in English

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).ledefalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “Ledoux” (#76,938), “Lawford” (#76,935), “leftward” (#76,939). Among 2,297 “L” headwords, “lede” is #76,937. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

lede is uncommon English at frequency #76,937 among 2,297 “L” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /liːd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A man; a person.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for lede, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English lede, leode (“man; human being, person; lord, prince; God; sir; group, kind; race; a people, nation; human race; land, real property”) [and other forms], from three closely related words: * Old English lēod (“man; chief, leader; (poetic)… The correct English form is lede, spelled L-E-D-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A man; a person.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how lede appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. & after to callice hee [Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey] arriued, / like a noble Leed of high degree, / & then to Turwin soone he hyed, / there he thought to haue found King Henery; […]
  2. Sweet, yes sweet is over (beyond) measure / The marrying for the young lede (people); / Most sweet it is, I say yet (once more), / When it goes with the rede (counsel) of the elders.

Etymology

From Middle English lede, leode (“man; human being, person; lord, prince; God; sir; group, kind; race; a people, nation; human race; land, real property”) [and other forms], from three closely related words: * Old English lēod (“man; chief, leader; (poetic) prince; a people, people group; nation”); * Old English lēoda (“man; person; native of a country”), related to lēod; and * Old English lēode (“men; people; the people of a country”), originally the plural of lēod. Lēod is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *liudi, from Proto-Germanic *liudiz (“man; person; men; people”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁léwdʰis (“man, people”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lewdʰ- (“to grow; people”). Doublet of leud. Cognates The English word is cognate with Dutch lieden (“people”), lui(den) (“people”), German Leute (“people”), Norwegian lyd (“people”), Polish lud (“people”), Russian люди (ljudi, “people”), West Frisian lie (“people”).

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "lede"?
"lede" is spelled L-E-D-E. The IPA pronunciation is /liːd/.
What does "lede" mean?
As a noun, "lede" means: A man; a person.
How do you pronounce "lede"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "lede" is /liːd/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "lede"?
From Middle English lede, leode (“man; human being, person; lord, prince; God; sir; group, kind; race; a people, nation; human race; land, real property”) [and other forms], from three closely related words: * Old English lēod (“man; chief, leader... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "lede", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Kura#76,928lief#76,950Kazi#76,910Ninh#77,033

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list