leaflet
Americannoun
-
leaflets
plural
-
a small flat or folded sheet of printed matter, as an advertisement or notice, usually intended for free distribution.
-
one of the separate blades or divisions of a compound leaf.
-
a small leaflike part or structure.
-
a small or young leaf.
verb (used with object)
-
leaflets,
present (3rd person singular)
-
leafletted,
past, past participle, past (especially British)
-
leafleted,
past participle
-
leafleting,
present participle
-
leafletting
present participle (especially British)
verb (used without object)
-
leaflets,
present (3rd person singular)
-
leafletted,
past, past participle, past (especially British)
-
leafleted,
past participle
-
leafleting,
present participle
-
leafletting
present participle (especially British)
noun
-
a printed and usually folded sheet of paper for distribution, usually free and containing advertising material or information about a political party, charity, etc
-
any of the subdivisions of a compound leaf such as a fern leaf
-
(loosely) any small leaf or leaflike part
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
leafletsimple
-
leafletssimple
-
have leafletedperfect
-
have leaflettedperfect
-
has leafletedperfect
-
has leaflettedperfect
-
am leafletingprogressive
-
am leaflettingprogressive
-
are leafletingprogressive
-
are leaflettingprogressive
-
is leafletingprogressive
-
is leaflettingprogressive
-
have been leafletingperfect progressive
-
have been leaflettingperfect progressive
-
has been leafletingperfect progressive
-
has been leaflettingperfect progressive
Past
-
leaflettedsimple
-
had leafletedperfect
-
had leaflettedperfect
-
was leafletingprogressive
-
was leaflettingprogressive
-
were leafletingprogressive
-
were leaflettingprogressive
-
had been leafletingperfect progressive
-
had been leaflettingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of leaflet
Explanation
A paper advertisement or a folded brochure is called a leaflet. To spread the word that your band is playing tonight, you could hand out leaflets. Most leaflets are free, part of their purpose being to attract an audience or customers, or to spread specific information or propaganda. You can also use this word to mean "small section of a leaf," particularly on a "compound leaf," which is made up of several leaflets, like the leaf of the ash tree. This botanical meaning is the original one — the "pamphlet" meaning arose in the 1800s, from leaf, or "page of a book."
Vocabulary lists containing leaflet
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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.
See Examples For:
In an exclusive interview, Michelle Dyson said patients were "too often diagnosed, discharged and sent home with little more than a leaflet".
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
The imprint was missing from a leaflet containing an open letter by a pensioner who had switched her support from Labour to Reform UK.
From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2026
Mui offers him a leaflet in case he wants more information, and the man refuses to take it.
From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2025
Of the 107 young people brought into custody during the pilot, 97% accepted an information leaflet about the service.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2025
Thanks to Miss Marva Hendrix, I brought in a Shirley Chisholm button along with her leaflet.
From "P.S. Be Eleven" by Rita Williams-Garcia
This is what appears to have happened in January 2025, when leaflets were dropped from an aircraft onto the streets of Culiacán.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Rhode Island’s Morticia, named for the Addams Family matriarch, spent much of its life as a single leaf stalk with multiple leaflets before going dormant, leaving what looked like a big pot of dirt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
A civil protection officer handed out bottles of water and leaflets on how to behave in the extreme heat, standing in front of a 3,000-litre tanker feeding the mister and the crowds around it.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
Those sponsored leaflets and postcard mailers that end up as makeshift coasters, mosquito swatters or unread refuse that goes straight from the mailbox into the blue recycle bin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026
Amid a shower of leaflets, the students poured into the atrium.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Outraged by the increase, the 65-year-old leafletted all houses on the estate and challenged the bill, eventually negotiating the lower fee for all 120 households.
From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2024
“They shouted obscenities, disparaged Heartbeat’s staff, volunteers, and supporters, and leafletted the venue with propaganda hoping to dissuade women from using Heartbeat’s services,” said the complaint.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 30, 2023
They leafleted the neighbours trying to make them aware of what Mr Jammeh was accused of doing back home.
From BBC ● May 27, 2022
I have leafleted and phoned with other union members to ensure transit funding.
From Seattle Times ● May 20, 2022
They leafleted neighborhoods, black and white, with fliers meant to both intimidate and recruit.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 5, 2018
The musicians union said its members recently leafleted outside a desert location shoot in Pearblossom, Calif., calling upon the show's production company, Picrow, to recognize musicians' right to a labor contract.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2016
The IDF has also robo-called and leafleted neighborhoods, warning people to clear out before the area is invaded.
From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2014
This will include members of the chorus leafleting the public outside the Wales Millennium Centre, where the production is taking place.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2024
In 2020, North Korea blew up an empty South Korean-built liaison office on its territory after a furious response to South Korean civilian leafleting campaigns.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 1, 2024
She said they were deployed to make good on her country’s recent threat to “scatter mounds of wastepaper and filth” in South Korea in response to the leafleting campaigns by South Korean activists.
From Seattle Times ● May 30, 2024
A local election Green Party candidate has said she is recovering well after having part of her finger bitten off by a dog while leafleting.
From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2024
The second report, broadcast in mid-December, was about a leafleting campaign in Paris accusing a former state prosecutor in Qatar of corruption.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2023
She hinted that balloons could become the North’s standard response to leafletting moving forward, saying that the North would respond by “scattering rubbish dozens of times more than those being scattered to us.”
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 1, 2024
Among other things, Tesla security guards repeatedly ordered union organizers to stop leafletting in Tesla’s parking lots and fired one union organizer for allegedly lying during a company investigation.
From The Verge ● Oct. 1, 2019
Volunteers started liking, sharing, leafletting, knocking on doors.
From The New Yorker ● May 27, 2019
Who will find the flyposting, the leafletting, the crowds on the Royal Mile and the endless procession of performers just a tad annoying.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2011
Choudary and some of his followers had advertised the event by leafletting for a week among the 20,000-strong Muslim population in the town, says Bunglawala, who has closely tracked Choudary's career.
From Salon ● Mar. 2, 2011
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.
