: a lateral (see lateralentry 1 sense 2) outgrowth from a plant stem that is typically a flattened expanded variably shaped greenish organ, constitutes a unit of the foliage, and functions primarily in food manufacture by photosynthesis
(2)
: a modified leaf (such as a bract or sepal) primarily engaged in functions other than food manufacture
Noun
I heard the rustle of the autumn leaves.
a pile of dead leaves
The trees drop their leaves in the fall, and new leaves grow again in the spring.
The trees have not yet come into leaf. Verb
we must have spent hours leafing through wallpaper books before we found something we both liked
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Noun
The search for a better solution led to the Guayusa leaf, a plant from the Amazon known for balanced caffeine and antioxidants.—Malana Vantyler, USA Today, 28 Aug. 2025 Cashmere Half Zip If your favorite part of fall is wearing warm and comfortable sweatshirts the moment the first leaf falls, snag this half-zip that’s the ideal elevated piece.—Rachel Trujillo, Travel + Leisure, 27 Aug. 2025
Verb
Trees are leafing, birds are chirping and the mere thought of sending a Microsoft Teams or Slack message feels like an affront to Mother Nature; spring has finally sprung in Indianapolis.—Bradley Hohulin, IndyStar, 2 July 2025 This is because of the increasing demands for networking and switches to connect exponentially larger clusters, from spine to leaf in the front end and back end, rack to rack and accelerator to accelerator.—Beth Kindig, Forbes, 19 Dec. 2024 See All Example Sentences for leaf
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English leef, from Old English lēaf; akin to Old High German loub leaf
First Known Use
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a(1)
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