# league

Pronunciation: say "LEEG" /liːɡ/

## Noun

1. An organized body of sports teams that compete against one another over a season to determine a champion.
   - Simple: A group of sports teams that play games against each other to win a championship.
   - _The league announced a new schedule for the upcoming season._
   - _Several teams joined the regional baseball league this year._
2. A level of quality or ability shared by people or things that are roughly equal to one another.
   - Simple: A level or class of people or things that are about as good as each other.
   - _As a chess player, she is simply in a league of her own._
   - _His skills put him in the same league as the top professionals._
3. A group of people, organizations, or nations that join together to work for a shared purpose or common cause.
   - Simple: A group of people, groups, or countries that join together to work for the same goal.
   - _A league of small business owners pooled their money to fund the project._
   - _She joined a league dedicated to improving public libraries._
6. A unit of distance, commonly about three English miles, that may originally have represented the distance a person could walk in an hour.
   - Simple: A unit of distance equal to about three miles, roughly how far a person can walk in one hour.
   - _The old map marked the well a single league north of the river._
   - _Sailors reported land lying three leagues to the west._
5. Short for rugby league, a form of rugby football played between teams of thirteen players. *(colloquial)* — Ellipsis of rugby league.
   - Simple: Short for rugby league, a kind of rugby football.
   - _She prefers league to union because the game flows faster._
   - _Most of the players grew up playing league in country towns._

## Adjective

4. Of a team or player, competing in the Football League or Premier League, England's top four divisions of professional soccer. *(British)*
   - Simple: Playing in one of the top four divisions of English professional soccer.
   - _When the little Yorkshire club won promotion from the National League, it became a league side for the first time in its history._
   - _She supported a league team that had spent decades in the lower divisions._

## Verb

7. To unite with others in a league or alliance, combining for mutual support.
   - Simple: To join together with others to form a group for help or support.
   - _The provinces agreed to league with one another for defense._
   - _Merchants leagued together to fix prices across the city._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A marker stone set up beside a public road to indicate the distance of a league.
- (noun) A prefecture-level administrative division used in Inner Mongolia, China, ranking alongside a prefecture or prefecture-level city.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–5, 7** — It comes from Middle English "liege" (a pact or alliance between governments), which came through Middle French "ligue" and Italian "lega" from the verb "legare," from Latin "ligo" ("I tie").
**Meaning 6** — It comes from Middle English "lege," from Late Latin "leuca" or "leuga" (the Gaulish mile), from Gaulish and Proto-Celtic *lougā. It is a doublet of "legua."

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