English Explanatory Dictionary

left

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Designating the side of the body toward the west when one is facing north; the side of the body on which the heart is located in most humans; the opposite of right. This arrow points to the reader's left: ←
  2. Anticlockwise, particularly when describing a change in direction or orientation.
  3. Designating the bank of a river (etc.) on one's left when facing downstream (i.e. facing forward while floating with the current); that is, the north bank of a river that flows eastward. If this arrow: ⥲ shows the direction of the current, the tilde is on the left side of the river.
  4. Left-wing; pertaining to the political left.
adv
  1. On the left side.
  2. Towards the left side.
  3. Towards the political left.
noun
  1. The left side or direction.
  2. The left-wing political parties as a group; citizens holding left-wing views as a group.
  3. The left hand or fist.
  4. A punch delivered with the left fist.
  5. A wave breaking from left to right (viewed from the shore).
verb
  1. simple past and past participle of leave (“depart, separate from; (cause or allow to) remain”).
verb
  1. simple past and past participle of leave (“permit”).
name
  1. The political left wing seen as a whole, as distinguished from an individual left-wing political party.

Pronunciation

/ˈlɛft/ /ˈlɛf/ /ˈlɛfʔ/ /lɛf/

Word forms

left further left farther left more left lefter furthest left farthest left most left leftmost leftest lefts the Left

Etymology

From Middle English left, luft, leoft, lift, lyft, from Old English left, lyft (“weak, clumsy, foolish”), attested in Old English lyftādl (“palsy, paralysis”), from Proto-Germanic *luft-, from *lubjaną (“to castrate, lop off”) (compare dialectal English lib, West Frisian lobje, Dutch lubben), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lewp-, *(s)lup- (“hanging limply”). Compare Scots left (“left”), North Frisian lefts, leeft, leefts (“left”), West Frisian lofts (“left”), obsolete Dutch lucht, leftsch, lefts, lefs (“left”), dialectal Dutch loof (“weak, worthless”), archaic Low German lucht (“left”).

Synonyms

sinister sinistral port 9 o'clock left wing leftists

Antonyms

right dexter dextral

Derived words

aleft allemande left audience left escalefter flush left flush left and right give one's left nut go left hard-left house left left-about left arm orthodox left arm unorthodox left atrium left back left bank left bower left bracket left brain left-brainer left-click left coast left coset left-drag left-edge deletion left eigenvalue left eigenvector lefteous leftern left exact left face left field leftfield left fielder left-footed left-footer left-half left hand left-hand left-handed lefthanded left hook left hooker left ideal left identity leftie left inverse left join left-justified left lane camper left lane hog left lane hogger left lane hugger left lateral left main leftmost left nullspace left-of-centre left outer join left-recursive
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