lea
noun
a tract of open ground, especially grassland; meadow.
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lea
1 American
[lee, ley]
/ li, leɪ /
Also
ley
noun
-
a tract of open ground, especially grassland; meadow.
-
land used for a few years for pasture or for growing hay, then plowed over and replaced by another crop.
-
a crop of hay on tillable land.
adjective
lea
2
American
[lee]
/ li /
noun
-
a measure of yarn of varying quantity, for wool usually 80 yards (73 meters), cotton and silk 120 yards (110 meters), linen 300 yards (274 meters).
-
Textiles.
-
a unit length used to ascertain the linear density of yarns.
-
a count or number representing units of linear measure per pound in linen or cotton yarn.
a 20-lea yarn.
-
Lea
3
American
[lee, lee-uh]
/ li, ˈli ə /
lea.
4
American
abbreviation
-
league.
-
leather.
lea
1
British
/ liː /
noun
-
poetic a meadow or field
-
land that has been sown with grass seed
lea
2
British
/ liː /
noun
-
a unit for measuring lengths of yarn, usually taken as 80 yards for wool, 120 yards for cotton and silk, and 300 yards for linen
-
a measure of yarn expressed as the length per unit weight, usually the number of leas per pound
LEA
3
British
abbreviation
Etymology
Origin of lea1
before 900; Middle English lege, lei, Old English lēah; cognate with Old High German lōh, dialectal Dutch loo (as in Waterloo ), Latin lūcus
Origin of lea2
1350–1400; perhaps back formation from Middle English lese, variant of leash
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:
Alongside him has been Michael Ellam, who returned to government in January to lea, at an officials-level, the negotiations with the EU.
From BBC ● May 18, 2025
Below us, the mountains rested under a knitted duvet of forest green, its smoothness only occasionally disturbed by the dropped stitch of a house or a small pea-green lea.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 4, 2021
Eli Manning, held to 156 yards and five INTs last year in 23-0 Seattle shutout, has 137 yards already as Giants lea 14-7.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 9, 2014
Anyone who has taken the ferry across to Stromness may be familiar with the sight of the lighthouse looming out of the mist, just as the ship reaches the lea of the islands.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2013
It was a very grey day; a most opaque sky, “onding on snaw,” canopied all; thence flakes fell at intervals, which settled on the hard path and on the hoary lea without melting.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
Harpenden Town Council said it released 200 water voles in the Upper River Lea, at Batford Springs, Hertfordshire.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
Last year, the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust returned 100 water voles to a stretch of the Upper River Lea, on the Ayot Estate, near Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
The latest detections included a calf in La Salle County, Texas, a goat in Gillespie County, Texas, and a dog in Lea County, New Mexico, following two earlier cases in Zavala County, Texas.
From Barron's ● Jun. 8, 2026
Lea inadvertently became the face of the capital’s influencer takeover, a new-media shift that has been met with considerable scorn.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
Besides, our music teacher, Miss Brown, was ancient, and her decrepit horse had to pull her gig three miles from Prairie Lea.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
Each charter is classified as an independent Local Education Agency, or LEA.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 12, 2020
LEA FASTOW, 42, wife of former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow; to a year in prison; in Houston.
From Time Magazine Archive
A guilty plea to a felony tax charge, by LEA FASTOW, whose spouse will spend 10 years in prison for his role in the Enron megafraud; in Houston.
From Time Magazine Archive
Throughout creation I but knew Two separate worlds—the one, that small, Beloved and consecrated spot Where LEA was—the other, all The dull, wide waste where she was not!
From The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore Collected by Himself with Explanatory Notes by Rossetti, William Michael
LEA, W.: Tables of strength and deflection of timber.
From The Mechanical Properties of Wood Including a Discussion of the Factors Affecting the Mechanical Properties, and Methods of Timber Testing by Record, Samuel J.
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.
