lede

American  

[leed] / lid /

Or lead

noun

1. Journalism.

   1. a short summary serving as an introduction to a news story, article, or other copy.

   2. the main and often most important news story.

---

Etymology

Origin of lede

First recorded in 1950–55; altered spelling of lead ¹ ( def. ) (in the journalism sense “short introductory summary”), used in the printing trades to distinguish it from the homograph lead ² ( def. ) (in the sense “thin strip of type metal for increasing the space between lines of type”)

Example Sentences

That’s because most of the news stories about this box set completely buried the lede, and I had to wait for a diehard fan to post about it.

From Salon

The headlines from the Federal Open Market Committee’s policy-decision meeting this coming week will, to use journalists’ jargon, likely bury the lede.

From Barron's

You can’t accuse those who title “NOVA” episodes of burying the lede with “Ancient Desert Death Trap.”

From The Wall Street Journal

And then he said, “But I’m in love with you. How about that? I buried the lede.”

From Los Angeles Times

Five years ago, that was the tortured lede of the column that was published in the immediate wake of Bryant’s death.

From Los Angeles Times