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• lek
  lek

  noun

  a traditional place where males assemble during the mating season and engage in competitive displays that attract females.
• Lek
  Lek

  noun

  a river in the central Netherlands, flowing W to the Meuse River; the N branch of the lower Rhine. 40 miles (64 km) long.

lek

¹ American  

[lek] / lɛk /

noun

1. a traditional place where males assemble during the mating season and engage in competitive displays that attract females.

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verb (used without object)

lekked, lekking

1. (of a male) to assemble in a lek and engage in competitive displays.

lek ² American  

[lek] / lɛk /

noun

1. an aluminum coin and monetary unit of Albania, equal to 100 qintars.

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Lek ³ American  

[lek] / lɛk /

noun

1. a river in the central Netherlands, flowing W to the Meuse River; the N branch of the lower Rhine. 40 miles (64 km) long.

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lek ¹ British  

/ lɛk /

noun

1. a small area in which birds of certain species, notably the black grouse, gather for sexual display and courtship

2. the act or practice of so gathering

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lek ² British  

/ lɛk /

noun

1. the standard monetary unit of Albania, divided into 100 qindarka

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Etymology

Origin of lek¹

1865–70; < Swedish: mating ground (perhaps elliptically from lekställe ), mating, game, play, Old Norse leikr play, cognate with Old English lāc struggle, offering, gift, Gothic laiks dance, Old High German leih melody

Origin of lek²

Borrowed into English from Albanian around 1925–30

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lek Lek lekking

On April 23, Vold took the Statesman to an Owyhees lek before dawn.

From Seattle Times ● May 27, 2024

These wild chickens are figuratively as well as literally colorful: When the males decide to court females, they gather in an area of either bare ground or short foliage called a "booming groundor lek."

From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2023

In a lek, each male has a territory, and the females shop around.

From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2019

You can time your visit to coincide with the arrival of your favorite migrator or with the deer lek.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 3, 2019

When they were done, they followed us on the path, singing one of S. E. Rogie’s songs, “Nor look me bad eye, nor weigh me lek dat...”

From "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah

For Lek, this is a moment of institutional prominence.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2023

Lek arrived at her singular style at a fortuitous moment.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2023

But Lek says she wasn’t ready to reckon with that.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2023

Lek and Kwanmueang have come back to Lek's home village in Surin province - a region whose people are famed for their skill in keeping, training, and in the past capturing, elephants.

From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2023

The Maas at Rotterdam is a mouth of the Rhine; but before it can become the Rhine proper it becomes the Lek, What is called the true mouth of the Rhine is at Katwyk.

From A Wanderer in Holland by Herbert Marshall, R.W.S.

Others appear to participate in lekking behavior, in which two or more males will perform for a female — duking it out through courtship displays — to gain her favor.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2023

Mariana Muñoz Romo, a bat biologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute who was not involved in the study, said she wasn’t ready to label the behavior as lekking.

From New York Times ● Nov. 11, 2020

Fallow are famous for lekking, which means they put on spectacular shows during the mid-October rut.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 3, 2019

These males don’t shy away from competition and will use the same lekking ground for years.

From National Geographic ● Feb. 10, 2018

High costs of female choice in a lekking lizard.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 17, 2012

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