leapfrog
Americannoun
-
a game in which players take turns in leaping over another player bent over from the waist.
-
an advance from one place, position, or situation to another without progressing through all or any of the places or stages in between.
a leapfrog from bank teller to vice president in one short year.
verb (used with object)
-
leapfrogs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
leapfrogged,
past participle, past
-
leapfrogging
present participle
-
to jump over (a person or thing) in or as if in leapfrog.
He leapfrogged the fence to reach the crying child.
-
to move or cause to move as if in leapfrog.
Manufacturers are leapfrogging prices because the cost of raw materials has doubled.
verb (used without object)
-
leapfrogs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
leapfrogged,
past participle, past
-
leapfrogging
present participle
noun
verb
-
-
(intr) to play leapfrog
-
(tr) to leap in this way over (something)
-
-
to advance or cause to advance by jumps or stages
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
leapfrogsimple
-
leapfrogssimple
-
have leapfroggedperfect
-
has leapfroggedperfect
-
am leapfroggingprogressive
-
are leapfroggingprogressive
-
is leapfroggingprogressive
-
have been leapfroggingperfect progressive
-
has been leapfroggingperfect progressive
Past
-
leapfroggedsimple
-
had leapfroggedperfect
-
was leapfroggingprogressive
-
were leapfroggingprogressive
-
had been leapfroggingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of leapfrog
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.
See Examples For:
The 104-year-old insurer is attempting to leapfrog its business model into the 21st century with the help of artificial intelligence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Scotland sits in seventh place in these standings, but their rivals have games left to pile up goals and leapfrog them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
Carlo Ancelotti's side breezed past Haiti to leapfrog the Scots in Group C on Saturday.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
"The industry has to innovate and leapfrog, and not just copy and paste China," he said.
From Barron's ● May 13, 2026
With these in place, German planes could leapfrog their way up the continent and seize the American-controlled Panama Canal Zone, and perhaps even Mexico or Cuba.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
Intent on ensuring that China leapfrogs the U.S. as the world’s pre-eminent power, Xi Jinping recently made the gutsy and perhaps counterintuitive decision to invest massively in an arena of American strength—basic research.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
Jacks played his two Tests in 2022 and leapfrogs Rehan Ahmed, Liam Dawson and Jack Leach to provide cover for Shoaib Bashir.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2025
The increase leapfrogs the Fed's 75 basis points increase last month for the largest since central banks began responding to inflation in force earlier this year.
From Reuters ● Jul. 13, 2022
Directed with admirable clarity by Adrienne Campbell-Holt, “Joan” leapfrogs through time to connect the dots that define its restless, ever-questing protagonist.
From New York Times ● Jan. 28, 2019
But Tom was most astonished to see how he fired himself off—snap! like the leapfrogs which you make out of a goose's breastbone.
From Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 2 by Charles Herbert Sylvester
Michael was already the biggest ever musical biopic, having leapfrogged 2018's Bohemian Rhapsody - about the band Queen.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
But Ms. Raman leapfrogged Mr. Pratt on Sunday after tens of thousands of additional ballots were counted.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026
Anthropic has leapfrogged ahead of rival artificial intelligence developer OpenAI, filing its confidential paperwork for an initial public offering.
From Barron's ● Jun. 2, 2026
When undecided voters were asked who they would vote for if they had to make a choice, Raman leapfrogged Pratt — though by less than a percentage point, the poll found.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2026
But she could not take her eyes from her brother as he leapfrogged from log to log, higher and higher.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
When Venus and Serena were leapfrogging each other early in their careers, often clashing in Grand Slam finals across continents and surfaces, Serena insisted their competition existed in a supportive environment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
First, the court agreed to issue its final judgment in Callais quickly, leapfrogging over the normal period when parties could seek Supreme Court rehearing.
From Slate ● May 13, 2026
Melius analyst Ben Reitzes points out that large language models have a way of leapfrogging each other.
From Barron's ● Nov. 28, 2025
At least one team that kept leapfrogging us didn’t reach their Atlantic goal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2025
“I read about it once. One of our own agents went rogue, and in order to confuse his trail he started leapfrogging through time.”
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Definitions 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.
