different between lead vs line

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English led, leed, from Old English l?ad (“lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laud (“lead”), borrowed from Proto-Celtic *?loudom, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd- (“to flow”). Cognate with Scots leid, lede (“lead”), North Frisian lud, luad (“lead”), West Frisian lead (“lead”), Dutch lood (“lead”), German Lot (“solder, plummet, sounding line”), Swedish lod (“lead”), Icelandic lóð (“a plumb, weight”), Irish luaidhe (“lead”) Latin plumbum (“lead”). Doublet of loth. More at flow.

Pronunciation

• enPR: l?d, IPA^(key): /l?d/
• Homophone: led

Noun

lead (countable and uncountable, plural leads)

1. (uncountable) A heavy, pliable, inelastic metal element, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished; both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity. It is easily fusible, forms alloys with other metals, and is an ingredient of solder and type metal. Atomic number 82, symbol Pb (from Latin plumbum).
2. (countable, nautical) A plummet or mass of lead attached to a line, used in sounding depth at sea or (dated) to estimate velocity in knots.
3. A thin strip of type metal, used to separate lines of type in printing.
4. (uncountable, typography) Vertical space in advance of a row or between rows of text. Also known as leading.

5. Sheets or plates of lead used as a covering for roofs.
6. (plural leads) A roof covered with lead sheets or terne plates.
7. (countable) A thin cylinder of black lead or plumbago (graphite) used in pencils.
8. (slang) Bullets; ammunition.

Derived terms

Translations

See lead/translations § Etymology 1.

Verb

lead (third-person singular simple present leads, present participle leading, simple past and past participle leaded)

1. (transitive) To cover, fill, or affect with lead

2. (transitive, printing, historical) To place leads between the lines of.

Usage notes

Note carefully these three senses are verbs derived from the noun referring to the metallic element, and are unrelated to the heteronym defined below under #Etymology 2.

Translations

See lead/translations § Etymology 1.

See also

Further reading

• David Barthelmy (1997–2021) , “Lead”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database
• “lead”, in Mindat.org?^[1], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2021.
• lead on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Middle English leden, from Old English l?dan (“to lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laidijan, from Proto-Germanic *laidijan? (“to cause one to go, lead”), causative of Proto-Germanic *l?þan? (“to go”), from Proto-Indo-European *leit-, *leith- (“to leave, die”).

Cognate with West Frisian liede (“to lead”), Dutch leiden (“to lead”), German leiten (“to lead”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål lede (“to lead”), Norwegian Nynorsk leia (“to lead”), Swedish leda (“to lead”). Related to Old English l?þan (“to go, travel”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: l?d, IPA^(key): /li?d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /lid/
• Homophones: leed, lede

Verb

lead (third-person singular simple present leads, present participle leading, simple past and past participle led)

2. (heading, transitive) To guide or conduct.
   1. To guide or conduct with the hand, or by means of some physical contact connection.

      • If a blind man lead a blind man, both fall down in the ditch.

      • They thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill.
   2. To guide or conduct in a certain course, or to a certain place or end, by making the way known; to show the way, especially by going with or going in advance of, to lead a pupil; to guide somebody somewhere or to bring somebody somewhere by means of instructions.

      • The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way.

      • He leadeth me beside the still waters.
   3. (figuratively): To direct; to counsel; to instruct

   4. To conduct or direct with authority; to have direction or charge of; to command, especially a military or business unit.
      • 1664, Robert South, A Sermon Preached Before the University at Christ-Church, Oxon

        Christ took not upon him flesh and blood that he might conquer and rule nations, lead armies, or possess places.

   5. To guide or conduct oneself in, through, or along (a certain course); hence, to proceed in the way of; to follow the path or course of; to pass; to spend. Also, to cause (one) to proceed or follow in (a certain course).

      • That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life.

      • 1849, Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H, XXXIII

        Nor thou with shadow'd hint confuse / A life that leads melodious days.

      • 1849-50, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 61

        You remember […] the life he used to lead his wife and daughter.

3. (intransitive) To guide or conduct, as by accompanying, going before, showing, influencing, directing with authority, etc.; to have precedence or preeminence; to be first or chief; — used in most of the senses of the transitive verb.
4. (heading) To begin, to be ahead.
   1. (transitive) To go or to be in advance of; to precede; hence, to be foremost or chief among.
      • 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso

        As Hesperus, that leads the sun his way.

      • c. 1819, Leigh Hunt, Abou Ben Adhem

        And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
   2. (intransitive) To lead off or out, to go first; to begin.
   3. (intransitive) To be more advanced in technology or business than others.
   4. (heading, sports)
      1. (transitive, card games, dominoes) To begin a game, round, or trick, with

      2. (intransitive) To be ahead of others, e.g., in a race.
      3. (intransitive) To have the highest interim score in a game.
      4. (baseball) To step off base and move towards the next base.

      5. (shooting) To aim in front of a moving target, in order that the shot may hit the target as it passes.
      6. (transitive, climbing) Lead climb.
5. (transitive) To draw or direct by influence, whether good or bad; to prevail on; to induce; to entice; to allure
   • 1649, King Charles I of England, Eikon Basilike

     He was driven by the necessities of the times, more than led by his own disposition, to any rigor of actions.

   • Silly women, laden with sins, led away by divers lusts.
6. (intransitive) To tend or reach in a certain direction, or to a certain place.
   • ca. 1590, William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, V-ii

     The mountain-foot that leads towards Mantua.
7. To produce (with to).
8. Misspelling of led.
9. (transitive) To live or experience (a particular way of life).

Derived terms

Related terms

• lad, laddie

Translations

See lead/translations § Etymology 2.

Noun

lead (countable and uncountable, plural leads)

1. (countable) The act of leading or conducting; guidance; direction, course
   • 1796, Edmund Burke, a letter to a noble lord

     At the time I speak of, and having a momentary lead, […] I am sure I did my country important service.

2. (countable) Precedence; advance position; also, the measure of precedence; the state of being ahead in a race; the highest score in a game in an incomplete game.
3. (Britain, countable) An insulated metallic wire for electrical devices and equipment.
4. (baseball) The situation where a runner steps away from a base while waiting for the pitch to be thrown.

5. (uncountable, card games, dominoes) The act or right of playing first in a game or round; the card suit, or piece, so played

6. (acting) The main role in a play or film; the lead role.
7. (acting) The actor who plays the main role; lead actor.
8. (business) The person in charge of a project or a work shift etc.

   John is the development lead on this software product.

9. (countable) A channel of open water in an ice field.
10. (countable, mining) A lode.
11. (nautical) The course of a rope from end to end.
12. A rope, leather strap, or similar device with which to lead an animal; a leash
13. In a steam engine, the width of port opening which is uncovered by the valve, for the admission or release of steam, at the instant when the piston is at end of its stroke.
    • Usage note: When used alone it means outside lead, or lead for the admission of steam. Inside lead refers to the release or exhaust.
14. Charging lead. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
15. (civil engineering) The distance of haul, as from a cutting to an embankment.
16. (horology) The action of a tooth, such as a tooth of a wheel, in impelling another tooth or a pallet.
17. Hypothesis that has not been pursued

18. Information obtained by a detective or police officer that allows him or her to discover further details about a crime or incident.

19. (marketing) Potential opportunity for a sale or transaction, a potential customer.

20. Information obtained by a news reporter about an issue or subject that allows him or her to discover more details.
21. (curling) The player who throws the first two rocks for a team.
22. (newspapers) A teaser; a lead-in; the start of a newspaper column, telling who, what, when, where, why and how. (Sometimes spelled as lede for this usage to avoid ambiguity.)
23. An important news story that appears on the front page of a newspaper or at the beginning of a news broadcast
24. (engineering) The axial distance a screw thread travels in one revolution. It is equal to the pitch times the number of starts.
25. (music) In a barbershop quartet, the person who sings the melody, usually the second tenor
26. (music) The announcement by one voice part of a theme to be repeated by the other parts.
27. (music) A mark or a short passage in one voice part, as of a canon, serving as a cue for the entrance of others.
28. (engineering) The excess above a right angle in the angle between two consecutive cranks, as of a compound engine, on the same shaft.
29. (electrical) The angle between the line joining the brushes of a continuous-current dynamo and the diameter symmetrical between the poles.
30. (electrical) The advance of the current phase in an alternating circuit beyond that of the electromotive force producing it.

Usage notes

Note that these noun (attributive) uses are all derived from the verb, not the chemical element in #Etymology 1.

Derived terms

Translations

See lead/translations § Etymology 2.

Adjective

lead (not comparable)

1. (not comparable) Foremost.

   Synonyms: first, front, head, leader, leading

2. (music) main, principal
   • 2017 August 25, "Arrest threat as Yingluck Shinawatra misses verdict", in aljazeera.com, Al Jazeera:

     Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand's ex-prime minister, has missed a verdict in a negligence trial that could have seen her jailed, prompting the Supreme Court to say it will issue an arrest warrant fearing she is a flight risk, according to the lead judge in the case.

Etymology 3

Verb

lead

1. Misspelling of led.

References

• lead in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• ALDE, Adel, Dale, Deal, Dela, E.D. La., Leda, adle, dale, deal, lade

Hungarian

Etymology

le- +? ad

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?l??d]
• Hyphenation: le?ad
• Rhymes: -?d

Verb

lead

1. (transitive) to pass down, hand down, turn in, drop off
2. (transitive) to lose weight, usually as a result of some kind of training or exercise

Conjugation

Derived terms

• leadás

(Expressions):

• leadja a voksát

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *laud.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /læ???d/

Noun

l?ad n

1. lead

Declension

Derived terms

• l?eden

Descendants

• Middle English: led, lede, lead, leyd, leod, leyt
  • English: lead
  • Scots: leid, lede
  • Yola: leed

Polish

Etymology

From English lead.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?it/

Noun

lead m inan

1. (newspapers, journalism) lead paragraph, teaser, lead-in (start of a newspaper column, telling who, what, when, where, why and how)

Declension

Further reading

• lead in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• lead in Polish dictionaries at PWN

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: l?n, IPA^(key): /la?n/
• Rhymes: -a?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English line, lyne, from Old English l?ne (“line, cable, rope, hawser, series, row, rule, direction”), from Proto-West Germanic *l?n?, from Proto-Germanic *l?n? (“line, rope, flaxen cord, thread”), from Proto-Germanic *l?n? (“flax, linen”), from Proto-Indo-European *l?no- (“flax”).

Influenced in Middle English by Middle French ligne (“line”), from Latin linea. More at linen.

The oldest sense of the word is "rope, cord, thread"; from this the senses "path", "continuous mark" were derived.

Noun

line (plural lines)

1. A path through two or more points (compare ‘segment’); a continuous mark, including as made by a pen; any path, curved or straight.
   • So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
   1. (geometry) An infinitely extending one-dimensional figure that has no curvature; one that has length but not breadth or thickness.

      Synonym: straight line

   2. (geometry, informal) A line segment; a continuous finite segment of such a figure.

      Synonym: line segment

   3. (graph theory) An edge of a graph.
   4. (geography) A circle of latitude or of longitude, as represented on a map.
   5. (geography, ‘the line’ or ‘equinoctial line’) The equator.
      • 1789, Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, vol. I, ch. 1:

        Benin […] is situated nearly under the line, and extends along the coast about 170 miles […] .
   6. (music) One of the straight horizontal and parallel prolonged strokes on and between which the notes are placed.
   7. (cricket) The horizontal path of a ball towards the batsman (see also length).
   8. (soccer) The goal line.
   9. (motoring) A particular path taken by a vehicle when driving a bend or corner in the road.
2. A rope, cord, string, or thread, of any thickness.
3. A hose or pipe, of any size.
   • 1973, Final Environmental Statement for the Geothermal Leasing Program (US department of the interior):

     There is the possible hazard of an oil spill in case the line breaks but normal pipeline maintenance and safety measures, etc., are designed to prevent large or long continued spillage.

   • 1981 October, Popular Science, volume 219, number 4, page 113:

     To the end of the metal fuel line (where it fits into the carb) you attach a four-foot length of flexible fuel line.

4. Direction, path.

5. The wire connecting one telegraphic station with another, a telephone or internet cable between two points: a telephone or network connection.

6. A clothesline.
7. A letter, a written form of communication.

   Synonyms: epistle, letter, note

8. A connected series of public conveyances, as a roadbed or railway track; and hence, an established arrangement for forwarding merchandise, etc.

9. (military) A trench or rampart, or the non-physical demarcation of the extent of the territory occupied by specified forces.
10. The exterior limit of a figure or territory: a boundary, contour, or outline; a demarcation.
11. A long tape or ribbon marked with units for measuring; a tape measure.
12. (obsolete) A measuring line or cord.

    • The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.

13. That which was measured by a line, such as a field or any piece of land set apart; hence, allotted place of abode.

    • The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

14. A threadlike crease or wrinkle marking the face, hand, or body; hence, a characteristic mark.
15. Lineament; feature; figure (of one's body).
16. A more-or-less straight sequence of people, objects, etc., either arranged as a queue or column and often waiting to be processed or dealt with, or arranged abreast of one another in a row (and contrasted with a column), as in a military formation. [from mid-16^thc.]

    Synonyms: (Canada) lineup, (UK, Ireland) queue
17. (military) The regular infantry of an army, as distinguished from militia, guards, volunteer corps, cavalry, artillery, etc.
19. A series or succession of ancestors or descendants of a given person; a family or race; compare lineage.
    • Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun.
20. A small amount of text. Specifically:
    1. A written or printed row of letters, words, numbers, or other text, especially a row of words extending across a page or column, or a blank in place of such text.

       Synonym: row

    2. A verse (in poetry).
    3. A sentence of dialogue, especially [from the later 19^thc.] in a play, movie, or the like.
    4. A lie or exaggeration, especially one told to gain another's approval or prevent losing it.

21. Course of conduct, thought, occupation, or policy; method of argument; department of industry, trade, or intellectual activity. [from earlier 17^thc.]
22. The official, stated position (or set of positions) of an individual or group, particularly a political or religious faction. [from later 19^thc.]

23. (slang) Information about or understanding of something. (Mostly restricted to the expressions get a line on, have a line on, and give a line on.)
24. A set of products or services sold by a business, or by extension, the business itself. [from earlier 19^thc.]

25. (stock exchange) A number of shares taken by a jobber.
26. A measure of length:
    1. (historical) A tsarist-era Russian unit of measure, approximately equal to one tenth of an English inch, used especially when measuring the calibre of firearms.
    2. One twelfth of an inch.
    3. One fortieth of an inch.
27. (historical) A maxwell, a unit of magnetic flux.
28. (baseball, slang, 1800s, with "the") The batter’s box.
29. (fencing) The position in which the fencers hold their swords.

    Synonym: line of engagement
30. (engineering) Proper relative position or adjustment (of parts, not as to design or proportion, but with reference to smooth working).

31. A small path-shaped portion or serving of a powdery illegal drug, especially cocaine.
32. (obsolete) Instruction; doctrine.

    • Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun.

33. (genetics) Population of cells derived from a single cell and containing the same genetic makeup.
34. (perfusion line) a set composed of a spike, a drip chamber, a clamp, a Y-injection site, a three-way stopcock and a catheter.
35. (ice hockey) A group of forwards that play together.
36. (Australian rules football) A set of positions in a team which play in a similar position on the field; in a traditional team, consisting of three players and acting as one of six such sets in the team.
37. (medicine, colloquial) A vascular catheter.

Derived terms

Related terms

• (geometry) curve, point, segment
• lineage
• lineal
• linear

Translations

Verb

line (third-person singular simple present lines, present participle lining, simple past and past participle lined)

1. (transitive) To place (objects) into a line (usually used with "up"); to form into a line; to align.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

2. (transitive) To place persons or things along the side of for security or defense; to strengthen by adding; to fortify.
3. (transitive) To form a line along.
4. (transitive) To mark with a line or lines, to cover with lines.

5. (transitive, obsolete) To represent by lines; to delineate; to portray.
6. (transitive) To read or repeat line by line.
   • 1897, Daniel Webster Davis, “De Linin’ ub de Hymns”, quoted in Jerma A. Jackson, “Exuberance or Restraint: Music and Religion after Reconstruction”, in Singing in My Soul: Black Gospel Music in a Secular Age, Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-8078-2860-1, page 15:

     De young folks say ’tain’t stylish to lin’ ’um no mo’; / Dat deys got edikashun, an’ dey wants us all to know / Dey like to hab dar singin’-books a-holin’ fore dar eyes, / An’ sing de hymns right straight along “to manshuns in de skies”.
7. (intransitive, baseball) To hit a line drive; to hit a line drive which is caught for an out. Compare fly and ground.

8. (transitive) To track (wild bees) to their nest by following their line of flight.
9. (transitive) To measure.

Derived terms

• line up
• underline

Translations

Etymology 2

Old English l?n (“flax, linen, cloth”). For more information, see the entry linen.

Alternative forms

• lin

Noun

line (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Flax; linen, particularly the longer fiber of flax.
   • a. 1818, J. C. Atkinson (ed.), North Riding Record Society (publisher), Quarter sessions records VIII p. 52 (compilation of historical records published in 1890, as quoted in the English Dialect Dictionary in 1902):

     To spin 2 lb. of line.

   • 1837, Everett, S. Hick 195:

     Which proved fatal to the line or flax crops.

   • 1858, Journal of the Statistical Society of London, page 409:

     1641.—14 yards of femble cloth, 12s. ; 8 yards of linen, 6s. 8d. ; 20 yards of harden, 10s. ; 5 linen sheets, 1l. ; 7 linen pillow bears, 8s. ; 2 femble sheets and a line hard sheet, 10s. ; 3 linen towels, 4s. ; 6 lin curtains and a vallance, 12s. ; […]

   • 1869, Dixon, Borrowdale, 2:

     T'burring o' t'woo' an' line wheels,

Translations

Verb

line (third-person singular simple present lines, present participle lining, simple past and past participle lined)

1. (transitive) To cover the inner surface of (something), originally especially with linen.

2. To reinforce (the back of a book) with glue and glued scrap material such as fabric or paper.
3. (transitive) To fill or supply (something), as a purse with money.

Derived terms

(terms derived from the verb "line"):

• line one's pockets

Translations

Etymology 3

Borrowed from Middle French ligner.

Verb

line (third-person singular simple present lines, present participle lining, simple past and past participle lined)

1. (transitive, now rare, of a dog) To copulate with, to impregnate.
   • 1868 September, The Country Gentleman's Magazine, page 292:

     Bedlamite was a black dog, and although it may be safely asserted that he lined upwards of 100 bitches of all colours, red, white, and blue, all his produce were black.

Translations

Gallery

References

line in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• LEIN, Neil, Niel, Nile, lien

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English line.

Noun

line f (invariable)

1. line management
2. editing (of a TV programme)

Related terms

• off-line
• on-line

Anagrams

• lenì

Latin

Verb

line

1. second-person singular present active imperative of lin?

References

• line in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)

Middle English

Alternative forms

• lyne, lin, lyene
• ligne (influenced by Old French ligne)

Etymology 1

From Old English l?ne, from Proto-Germanic *l?n?. Some forms and meanings are from Old French ligne.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li?n(?)/

Noun

line (plural lines)

1. rope, cord
2. line, rule, ruler, measure
3. (figuratively) rule, direction, command, edict
4. line, straight mark; also a fictitious line
5. (written) line, verse

Descendants

• English: line

References

• “l?ne, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-23.

Etymology 2

From Old English l?n.

Noun

line (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of lyne

References

• “lin,, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 29 April 2018.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /²li?n?/

Etymology 1

From Latin linea

Alternative forms

• linje

Noun

line f (definite singular lina, indefinite plural liner, definite plural linene)

1. a line (a continuous mark through two or more points; a succession of ancestors or descendants; the stated position of an individual or group)

Derived terms

• kystline
• skiljeline

Etymology 2

From Old Norse lína

Noun

line f (definite singular lina, indefinite plural liner, definite plural linene)

1. a line (a strong rope, cord, string, wire)

References

• “line” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *l?n? (“line, rope, flaxen cord, thread”), from Proto-Germanic *l?n? (“flax, linen”), from Proto-Indo-European *l?no- (“flax”). Akin to Old High German l?na (“line”) (German Leine (“rope”)), Middle Dutch l?ne (“rope, cord”) (Dutch lijn (“rope”)), Old Norse l?na (“cord, rope”) (Danish line (“rope, cord”)), Old English l?n (“flax, linen, cloth”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?li?.ne/

Noun

l?ne f

1. line, rope, cable
2. row, series
3. direction, rule

Declension

Related terms

• l?n
• l?nen, linnen

Descendants

• Middle English: line, lyne
  • English: line

Phuthi

Etymology

From Proto-Nguni *niná.

Pronoun

liné

1. you, you all; second-person plural absolute pronoun.

Spanish

Noun

line m (plural lines)

1. (rugby) lineout