# leading

Pronunciation: say "LEE-ding" US /ˈlidɪŋ/, UK /ˈliːdɪŋ/

## Adjective

1. Ranking at or near the top in importance, position, or success.
   - Simple: At or near the top, ahead of all or most others.
   - _The university is home to several leading researchers in climate science._
   - _Their firm remains the leading exporter of coffee in the region._
3. Happening in advance of something else, or coming before it in a sequence.
   - Simple: Coming or happening before something else, earlier in time or in order.
   - _Economists treat new orders for factory goods as a leading indicator of growth in the months ahead._
   - _The script strips leading and trailing spaces from every field before saving the record._
5. Providing guidance or direction toward a particular result.
   - Simple: Helping to guide someone or show the way.
   - _A skilled interviewer avoids leading questions that suggest the desired reply._
   - _Her leading remarks gradually steered the meeting toward a decision._

## Verb

2. Present participle and gerund of lead. — present participle and gerund of lead
   - Simple: The -ing form of lead, as in she is leading a team or she is good at leading.
   - _The general is leading his troops across the river at dawn._
   - _Leading by example is the kind of management she respects._

## Noun

4. Guidance that leads or directs someone, or the act of giving it.
   - Simple: The act of guiding someone or showing the way.
   - _At the Quaker meeting, she rose to speak only after she felt a clear leading to share what was on her heart._
   - _The pastor said the church's decision to open a shelter came after months of prayer and seeking the Spirit's leading._
6. The vertical space added between lines of text; line spacing. (pronounced: say "LED-ing" /ˈlɛdɪŋ/)
   - Simple: The blank space between lines of printed text.
   - _The designer increased the leading to make the page easier to read._
   - _Tight leading made the dense paragraph look cramped on the page._

## Noun

7. The role of commanding troops; charge of an army or other military force. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Control or command of an army.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–3, 5** — This is from Middle English ledinge, from Old English lǣdende, going back through Proto-West Germanic and Proto-Germanic present participle forms of the verb meaning "to lead." It is equivalent to lead + -ing, and is related to Dutch leidend, German leitend, and Swedish ledande.
**Meanings 4, 7** — Formed in Middle English, where it was leding, as lead + -ing. Its cognates include Dutch leiding ("conduit, guidance") and German Leitung ("line, conduit, cable").
**Meaning 6** — This comes from Middle English leedynge, equivalent to lead (the chemical element) + -ing. It was so named because in metal typesetting, pieces of lead such as slugs and strips were the usual means of producing the gap between lines.

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