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• lepto
  lepto

  noun

  leptospirosis.
• lepto-
  lepto-

  a combining form meaning “thin,” “fine,” “slight,” used in the formation of compound words.

lepto

¹ American  

[lep-toh] / ˈlɛp toʊ /

noun

Informal.

1. leptospirosis.

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lepto- ² American  

especially before a vowel, lept-.

1. a combining form meaning “thin,” “fine,” “slight,” used in the formation of compound words.

   leptophyllous.

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lepto- British  

combining form

1. fine, slender, or slight

   leptosome

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Usage

What does lepto- mean? Lepto- is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “thin, fine, slight.” It is used in medical, scientific, and other technical terms. Lepto- comes from the Greek leptós, variously meaning “thin, slight, fine, small,” with a literal sense of “stripped.” Leptós is also the source of leptin, a hormone thought to suppress appetite and speed up metabolism. What are variants of lepto-?When combined with words or word elements that begin with a vowel, lepto- can become lept-.

Etymology

Origin of lepto¹

By shortening

Origin of lepto-²

< Greek lepto-, combining form of leptós thin, slight, fine, literally, stripped, equivalent to lép ( ein ) to strip + -tos adj. suffix

Example Sentences

“Then a concerned dog owner came up to me and told me that a few puppies have passed away from lepto recently, so we all got out of there.”

From New York Times • Jan. 25, 2022

“If you have a private backyard, if your pet is in the parks, if your pet likes to sniff around garbage, drink from standing puddles, get a lepto vaccine,” she said.

From New York Times • Jan. 25, 2022

Dental pulp would be needed to get lepto DNA, requiring breaking open teeth from ancestral remains.

From Slate • Nov. 20, 2012

Seventeen percent of the rats had lepto, and the people who had lepto worked or lived in conditions that exposed them to rat urine.

From Slate • Nov. 20, 2012

We have thus a series showing a progressive reduction in the complexity of the life-history, the lepto and micro forms having a life-history like that of the Basidiomycetes.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 3 "Frost" to "Fyzabad" by Various