left
/ˈɫɛft/adjective, adverb, noun, verb
left is spelled L-E-F-T. The wrong spelling people search most is lefted: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 208 of all searches for the word. Left is an adjective meaning “Designating the side of the body toward the west when one is facing north; the side of the body on which the…”.
How many letters and syllables are in left?
| Letters | 4: L-E-F-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 417 times per million words; the 217th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, lefted, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people 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); 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 do you spell left?
Left is spelled L-E-F-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 208 of the searches for left in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is left?
Left appears 417 times per million words in written English, the 217th 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 left?
- UK /ˈlɛft/
- US /ˈɫɛft/
- /ˈlɛf/
Left 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).
Words people confuse with left
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: leaved.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with left?
3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as left from its last stressed vowel (/ɛft/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: felt, flet.
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 left
- further left comparative
- farther left comparative
- more left comparative
- lefter comparative
- furthest left superlative
- farthest left superlative
- most left superlative
- leftmost superlative
- leftest superlative
- lefts plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does left mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Designating the side of the body toward the west when one is facing north; the side of the body on which the heart is located in most humans; the opposite of right. This arrow points to the reader's left: ←
Near-synonym: port
- 2
Anticlockwise, particularly when describing a change in direction or orientation.
The road up ahead contains a left bend.
- 3
Designating the bank of a river (etc.) on one's left when facing downstream (i.e. facing forward while floating with the current); that is, the north bank of a river that flows eastward. If this arrow: ⥲ shows the direction of the current, the tilde is on the left side of the river.
The Eiffel Tower is on the left bank of the Seine.
- 4
Left-wing; pertaining to the political left.
- 5
Relating to the beginning or earlier part of a phrase.
left dislocation
- 6
leftover, remaining
adverb
- 1
On the left side.
- 2
Towards the left side.
Turn left at the corner. NO! Your other left.
- 3
Towards the political left.
The East Coast of the US leans left in elections.
noun
- 1
The left side or direction.
- 2
The left-wing political parties as a group; citizens holding left-wing views as a group.
The Left left workers behind, thinking they had a winning demographic coalition. It hasn't really worked out for them yet.
- 3
The left hand or fist.
- 4
A punch delivered with the left fist.
- 5
A wave breaking from left to right (viewed from the shore).
verb
- 1
simple past and past participle of leave (“depart, separate from; (cause or allow to) remain”).
There's not much food left.
- 2
simple past and past participle of leave (“permit”).
We were not left go to the beach after school except on a weekend.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate left?
Wiktionary records 5 abbreviations of left: L, LAE, LAK, l., lt.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Left in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | gauche , à gauche , restant |
| German | link , übrig , links , nach links , Linke |
| Portuguese | esquerdo , à esquerda , de esquerda, esquerdista , sestro , esquerda |
| Spanish | izquierda , a la izquierda , de izquierda |
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 left come from?
From Middle English left, luft, leoft, lift, lyft, from Old English left, lyft (“weak, clumsy, foolish”), attested in Old English lyftādl (“palsy, paralysis”), from Proto-Germanic *luft-, from *lubjaną (“to castrate, lop off”) (compare dialectal English lib, West Frisian lobje, Dutch lubben), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lewp-, *(s)lup- (“hanging limply”). Compare Scots left (“left”), North Frisian lefts, leeft, leefts (“left”), West Frisian lofts (“left”), obsolete Dutch lucht, leftsch, lefts, lefs (“left”), dialectal Dutch loof (“weak, worthless”), archaic Low German lucht (“left”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).