# leader

Pronunciation: US say "LEE-dur" /ˈli.dɚ/; UK say "LEE-duh" /ˈliː.də(ɹ)/

## Noun

1. A person who leads, guides or is in charge of a group, organization or country.
   - Simple: A person who guides or is in charge of a group, organization or country.
   - _Every department reports to a single leader who sets priorities._
   - _The board appointed her as leader of the entire division._
2. A person or organization that ranks first in a field for excellence or success.
   - Simple: A person or company that is the best or most successful in a field.
   - _The firm is widely regarded as the leader in renewable energy._
   - _For decades the brand stayed the clear leader in its category._
3. A person who heads a political party or a group of its elected members, sometimes used as a formal title.
   - Simple: A person who is in charge of a political party or its elected members.
   - _Party members voted to replace their leader after the election defeat._
   - _As leader, she steered the party toward the center._
4. The musician who leads a band, choir or section of an orchestra, or the principal first violinist, who leads the whole orchestra.
   - Simple: The musician leading a band, choir or orchestral section, or, in Britain, the main first violinist of an orchestra.
   - _The section leader cued the violins for their entrance._
   - _As leader of the cellos, she marked the bowings for the whole section._
5. A person who goes first, ahead of the others.
   - Simple: A person who goes first, so others can follow.
   - _The leader reached the summit an hour before the rest._
   - _In deep snow the leader breaks the trail, and the skiers behind take turns at the front whenever that person tires._
6. The dominant animal in a group, such as a wolf pack or lion pride, that the others follow.
   - Simple: The animal in charge of a pack or group, which the others follow.
   - _The other wolves deferred to their leader at the kill._
   - _A young challenger fought the old leader for control of the pride._
7. The principal editorial article in a newspaper, expressing the publication's main opinion on a current issue. *(UK)*
   - Simple: The main opinion piece in a newspaper.
   - _The Times ran a strongly worded leader on the housing crisis._
   - _Each morning the editor drafts the leader before the news meeting._
8. A loss leader, or a popular product sold at its normal price, used to draw customers into a store.
   - Simple: A popular product a store uses to pull in customers, sometimes sold cheaply.
   - _The supermarket ran canned tuna as its weekly leader, betting that shoppers who came in for it would fill their carts with full-priced goods._
   - _Electronics chains often treat a new game console as a leader, selling it close to cost to bring in buyers for games and accessories._
9. A section of line connecting the main fishing line to the hook or lure, often used to resist bites or abrasion or reduce visibility.
   - Simple: A short line between the main fishing line and hook, used to resist damage or be harder for fish to see.
   - _He attached a long fluorocarbon leader so the spooked bass wouldn't shy away._
   - _The toothy fish frayed the leader but never reached the main line._
10. An animal at the front of a team pulling a sled, carriage or plow, such as either front horse of a team of four.
   - Simple: An animal that goes at the front of a team pulling a sled, carriage or plow.
   - _The musher trusted her best dog as leader on the icy trail._
   - _Driving four horses, the coachman kept a close eye on the near leader, the front horse on the left, since it set the line for the whole team._
11. In typesetting, a line of dots, periods, or hyphens that carries the reader's eye across a blank space to the matching word or number, as in a table of contents.
   - Simple: A row of dots or dashes that guides your eye across a page to the right number or word.
   - _Each entry in the index was followed by a leader that carried the eye to the page number._
   - _The template inserted a leader automatically whenever a heading and its number were too far apart._
12. A length of material at the beginning or end of a reel or roll that lets it be threaded or fed onto a device such as a projector or printing press.
   - Simple: A strip at the start or end of a film or paper roll that helps thread it onto a machine.
   - _She fed the leader through the rollers before the press could grip the paper._
   - _The countdown numbers were printed on the leader at the head of the reel._
13. A fast-growing shoot at the tip of a woody plant's stem or branch.
   - Simple: A fast-growing shoot at the tip of a tree's or bush's stem or branch.
   - _Pruning the central leader encouraged the apple tree to fill out its lower branches._
   - _A healthy leader on a conifer extends the trunk straight upward year after year._
14. A pipe for carrying rainwater from a roof down to a cistern or to the ground.
   - Simple: A pipe that carries rainwater down from a roof to the ground or a storage tank.
   - _Rain poured from the gutter into the leader and out across the lawn._
   - _They connected the leader to a barrel so the runoff could be saved for the garden._
15. The channel of ionized air that forms first in a lightning strike, usually reaching down from a cloud toward the ground, and sets the path and shape of the bolt.
   - Simple: The path that electric charge opens first, usually from a cloud down to the ground, shaping a bolt of lightning.
   - _The descending leader branched repeatedly as it searched for the easiest route to the ground._
   - _A rising spark met the leader partway down, completing the channel for the strike._

## Noun

16. A printed title or caption shown on screen between or within the scenes of a film, especially a silent film. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A frame of printed words shown during a film, especially an old silent movie.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A net used to guide fish into a pound, weir, or similar trap.
- (noun) The drive wheel in a machine, the one that turns and moves the other connected parts.
- (noun) A small branch or vein of ore, unimportant in itself but a sign that a better one lies nearby.
- (noun) In sailing, a hardwood block with holes bored through it to guide ropes into their proper positions.
- (noun) A piece of printing type whose face carries a single dot or a short row of dots.

## Origin

Made of lead + -er, it goes back through Middle English leder and Old English lǣdere ("leader") to Proto-West Germanic *laidijārī. Its relatives include Dutch leider, German Leiter, Danish leder, and Swedish ledare.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/leader (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).