different between leak vs league

English

Etymology

From Middle English leken (“to let water in or out”), from Middle Dutch leken (“to leak, drip”) or Old Norse leka (“to leak, drip”); both from Proto-Germanic *lekan? (“to leak, drain”), from Proto-Indo-European *leg-, *le?- (“to leak”).

Cognate with Dutch lekken (“to leak”), German lechen, lecken (“to leak”), Swedish läcka (“to leak”), Icelandic leka (“to leak”). Related also to Old English le??an (“to water, wet”), Albanian lag, lak (“I damp, make wet”). See also leach, lake.

Pronunciation

• enPR: l?k, IPA^(key): /li?k/
• Rhymes: -i?k
• Homophone: leek

Noun

leak (plural leaks)

1. A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.

   a leak in a roof

   a leak in a boat

   a leak in a gas pipe

2. The entrance or escape of a fluid through a crack, fissure, or other aperture.

   The leak gained on the ship's pumps.

   The babies' diapers had big leaks.

3. A divulgation, or disclosure, of information previously held secret.

   The leaks by Chelsea Manning showed the secrets of the US military.

4. The person through whom such divulgation, or disclosure, occurs.

   The press must have learned about the plan through a leak.

5. A loss of electricity through imperfect insulation, or the point where it occurs.
6. (computing) The gradual loss of a system resource caused by failure to deallocate previously reserved portions.

   resource leak

   memory leak

7. (vulgar, slang, especially with the verb "take") An act of urination.

   I have to take a leak.

Derived terms

• gas leak
• leaky
• memory leak

Translations

Verb

leak (third-person singular simple present leaks, present participle leaking, simple past and past participle leaked)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To allow fluid or gas to pass through an opening that should be sealed.

2. (intransitive) (of a fluid or gas) To pass through an opening that should be sealed.

3. (transitive, intransitive) To disclose secret information surreptitiously or anonymously.
4. (intransitive, figuratively, by extension) To pass through when it would normally or preferably be blocked.
   • 1989, Kenneth N. Luongo, ?W. Thomas Wander, The Search for Security in Space (page 149)

     A target that is not detected would not be intercepted and thus would leak through the single defensive layer.

5. (transitive, figuratively, by extension) To allow anything through that would normally or preferably be blocked.

Translations

Adjective

leak (comparative more leak, superlative most leak)

1. (obsolete) Leaky.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.8:

     Yet is the bottle leake, and bag so torne, / That all which I put in fals out anon […].

Anagrams

• Akel, Alek, Kale, Lake, ka le, kale, lake

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li?k/

Verb

leak

1. singular imperative of leaken
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of leaken

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li??/
• Rhymes: -i??

Etymology 1

From Middle English liege, ligg, lige (“a pact between governments, an agreement, alliance”), from Middle French ligue, from Italian lega, from the verb legare, from Latin lig? (“I tie”).

Noun

league (plural leagues)

1. A group or association of cooperating members.
   • 1668, John Denham, The Passion of Dido for Aeneas

     And let there be / 'Twixt us and them no league, nor amity.

2. (sports) An organization of sports teams which play against one another for a championship.

3. (informal, rugby) Ellipsis of rugby league

4. (often in the negative) A class or type of people or things that are evenly matched or on the same level.

5. A prefecture-level administrative unit in Inner Mongolia (Chinese: ?).

Derived terms

Related terms

• ally
• alliance

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (r?gu)
• ? Korean: ?? (rigeu)

Translations

Verb

league (third-person singular simple present leagues, present participle leaguing, simple past and past participle leagued)

1. To form an association; to unite in a league or confederacy; to combine for mutual support.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of South to this entry?)

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English lege (“league”), from Late Latin leuca, leuga (“the Gaulish mile”), from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *lewg? (compare Middle Breton leau, Welsh lew, Breton lev / leo (“league”)).

Noun

league (plural leagues)

1. (measurement) The distance that a person can walk in one hour, commonly taken to be approximately three English miles (about five kilometers).
   • 1751-1753, Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, History of Louisiana (PG), p. 47

     Seven leagues above the mouth of the river we meet with two other passes, as large as the middle one by which we entered.
2. A stone erected near a public road to mark the distance of a league.

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “league”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• Middle English Dictionary, lege