leaden
Americanadjective
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inertly heavy like lead; hard to lift or move.
a leaden weight; leaden feet.
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dull, spiritless, or gloomy, as in mood or thought.
leaden prose; a leaden atmosphere.
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of a dull gray color.
leaden skies.
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oppressive; heavy.
a leaden silence.
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sluggish; listless.
They moved at a leaden pace.
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of poor quality or little value.
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made or consisting of lead.
verb (used with object)
adjective
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heavy and inert
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laboured or sluggish
leaden steps
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gloomy, spiritless, or lifeless
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made partly or wholly of lead
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of a dull greyish colour
a leaden sky
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of leaden
before 1000; Middle English leden, Old English lēaden. See lead 2, -en 2
Explanation
Something leaden moves in a heavy, slow way. After a sleepless night, your leaden feet will walk more sluggishly than usual to the bus stop. Dull, heavy things can be described as leaden, like a dense, boring novel full of leaden dialog or your fatigued, leaden legs at the end of a full day's hike up a mountain. If something is the color of lead — a dull gray — that's also leaden, like the leaden, stormy sky. Finally, things made of lead are quite literally leaden, the word's original meaning, from a Germanic root meaning "heavy metal."
Vocabulary lists containing leaden
Othello
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The Diary of a Young Girl
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Spy School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Such banalities as “Memories are magic,” “It’s not a dream, it’s a nightmare” and “you don’t drag me down, you make me soar” typify the leaden nature of the writing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
In many ways his post-match comments mirrored his team's performance - leaden, stale, disheartening.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Half the documentary’s parenthetical title — “The Weight of the World” — speaks to a common leaden feeling of gloom hovering over America’s semiquincentennial summer.
From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2026
Their intended audience includes national security bureaucrats in the U.S. and abroad and the think-tankers and journalists obliged by a sense of professional responsibility to at least scan these generally leaden, cliché-ridden products of groupthink.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025
Out there was the gray beach with the slow combers rolling dull and leaden and the distant sound of it.
From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
