legend

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The life story of a saint (such stories are often embellished, but any kind is called a legend).
  2. An unrealistic story depicting past events.
  3. A story of unknown origin describing plausible but extraordinary past events.
  4. A plausible story set in the historical past, but whose historicity is uncertain.
  5. A story in which a kernel of truth is embellished to an unlikely degree.
  6. A fabricated backstory for a spy, with associated documents and records.
  7. Such stories considered collectively; unverified traditional tales.
  8. A person related to a legend or legends.
  9. A leading protagonist in a historical legend.
  10. A person of extraordinary fame or accomplishments.
  11. A cool, nice or helpful person, especially one who is male.
  12. A key to the symbols and color codes on a map, chart, etc.
verb
  1. To tell or narrate; to recount.
name
  1. A male given name.

Pronunciation

/ˈlɛd͡ʒ.ənd/ /ˈliːd͡ʒ.ənd/ en-us-legend.ogg en-au-legend.ogg

Word forms

legend legends legending legended

Etymology

From Middle English legende, from Old French legende, from Medieval Latin legenda (“a legend, story, especially the lives of the saints”), from Latin legenda (“things which ought to be read”), from lego (“to read”).

Translations

Afrikaans: legende Arabic: بَطَل Arabic: بَطَلَة Bulgarian: леге́нда Catalan: llegenda Chinese Mandarin: 傳奇 /传奇 Esperanto: legendo Esperanto: legendulo Finnish: legenda French: légende Galician: lenda Greek: θρύλος Hungarian: legenda Italian: mito Italian: mostro sacro Italian: leggenda Malay: lagenda Malayalam: ഇതിഹാസം Polish: legenda Portuguese: lenda Russian: леге́нда Serbo-Croatian: лѐге̄нда Serbo-Croatian: lègēnda Spanish: leyenda Swedish: legendar Turkish: efsane Turkish: kahraman Vietnamese: huyền thoại
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