# left

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ˈlɛft/ · frequency rank #215

## Definitions
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: ←
2. Anticlockwise, particularly when describing a change in direction or orientation.
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.
4. Left-wing; pertaining to the political left.

## Etymology
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”).

## Easily confused with
- **Lt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-lt)
- **LF** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-lf)
- **lot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-lot)
- **let** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-let)
- **leg** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-leg)
- **leo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-leo)
- **lit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-lit)
- **les** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-les)
- **lex** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-lex)
- **Len** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-len)
- **Lew** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-lew)
- **lei** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-lei)
- **lev** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-lev)
- **ley** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-ley)
- **LST** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-lst)
- **LRT** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-lrt)
- **LEM** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-lem)
- **Leh** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-leh)
- **LIF** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-lif)
- **lel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/left-vs-lel)

## Common misspellings (6)
`elft`, `lefft`, `leftt`, `letf`, `lfet`, `lleft`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/left