leader

plural leaders

1. Any person who leads or directs.

   In an era when political leaders promise deliverance from decline through America’s purported preeminence in scientific research, the news that science is in deep trouble in the United States has been as unwelcome as a diagnosis of leukemia following the loss of health insurance.

   2012 January 28, Philip E. Mirowski, “Harms to Health from the Pursuit of Profits”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 04 Apr 2012, page 87

   1. One who goes first.

      Follow the leader.

   2. One having authority to direct.

      We elected her team leader.

      3 more examples

      America needs not only an administrator, but a leader - a pathfinder, a blazer of the trail to the high road that will avoid the bottomless morass of crass materialism that has engulfed so many of the great civilizations of the past.

      1928, Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Happy Warrior Alfred E. Smith, Houghton Mifflin, →OCLC, →OL, page 40

      On the other hand, I must think of Korea and, particularly, of the three million enslaved Koreans in the North. My obligation as a leader of the Korean people is to achieve unification of our country by peaceful means if possible but by force if necessary.

      1978, Richard Nixon, quoting Syngman Rhee, RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 127

      The leader is the man who knows the way of the overlords but identifies with the life of the oppressed.

      1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 195

      Synonyms: chief, chieftain, commander, captain

   3. One who leads a political party or group of elected party members; sometimes used in titles.

      Senate Majority Leader

      1 more example

      Leader of the House of Commons

   4. A person or organization that leads in a certain field in terms of excellence, success, etc.

      The company is the leader in home remodeling in the county.

   5. entertainmentA performer who leads a band, choir, or a section of an orchestra.

      Synonyms: conductor

   6. UKentertainmentThe first violin in a symphony orchestra; the concertmaster.
2. An animal that leads.
   1. The dominant animal in a pack of animals, such as wolves or lions.

      The gesture of licking and nipping a leader's muzzle is similar to the food-begging behavior of wolf pups and may be related to it.

      1987, Sylvia A. Johnson with Alice Aamodt, Wolf Pack: Tracking Wolves in the Wild, page 41

      Synonyms: alpha, pack leader

   2. An animal placed in advance of others, especially on a team of horse, oxen, or dogs.

      Still there are many passages in his [Donne's] writings, where it is plain that he forgot to pull in his leaders; and they gallop away with him at times over hill and dale, over ploughed land and waste.

      1846, Julius Charles Hare, “On the Comforter's conviction of Righteousness”, in The mission of the Comforter, and other sermons with Notes

   3. Either of the two front horses of a team of four in front of a carriage.

      How proud felt Pierre: In fancy’s eye, he saw the horse-ghosts a-tandem in the van; “These are but wheelers”—cried young Pierre—“the leaders are the generations.”

      1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or The Ambiguities

      Antonyms: wheeler

3. Someone or something that leads or conducts.
   1. biologyA fast-growing terminal shoot of a woody plant.

      A strong central leader may result in essentially horizontal branches resembling a "telephone pole."

      1975, David J. De Laubenfels, Mapping the world's vegetation: regionalization of formations and flora, page 82

      Synonyms: guide, conductor

   2. A pipe for conducting rain water from a roof to a cistern or to the ground.

      Synonyms: guide, conductor

   3. UKjournalismThe first, or the principal, editorial article in a newspaper; a leading or main editorial article; a lead story.

      Synonyms: guide, conductor

   4. fishingA section of line between the main fishing line and the snell of a hook, intended to be more resistant to bites and harder for a fish to detect than the main fishing line.

      Synonyms: guide, conductor

   5. broadcastingA piece of material at the beginning or end of a reel or roll to allow the material to be threaded or fed onto something, as a reel of film onto a projector or a roll of paper onto a rotary printing press.

      If you need to reload film, the cassette can be rewound slightly by turning the hub located on one end of its spool. Do not rewind so much that the leader disappears into the cassette.

      2011, Rebekah Modrak, Bill Anthes, Reframing Photography: Theory and Practice

      Synonyms: guide, conductor

   6. datedbroadcastingAn intertitle.

      The leader only runs three seconds, but it acts like a drop curtain in a theater.

      1913, Epes Winthrop Sargent, The Technique of the Photoplay, New York, page 15

      Synonyms: guide, conductor

   7. businessA loss leader or a popular product sold at a normal price.

      Synonyms: guide, conductor

   8. mediaA type having a dot or short row of dots upon its face.

      Synonyms: guide, conductor

   9. in pluralmediaA row of dots, periods, or hyphens, used in tables of contents, etc., to lead the eye across a space to the right word or number.

      Synonyms: guide, conductor

   10. fishingA net for leading fish into a pound, weir, etc.

       when two wheels geer together, the one which communicates the motion to the other is called the driver or leader; and the wheel impelled is the follower

       1852, D. Gilbert, “Geering”, in Appleton's dictionary of machines, mechanics, engine-work, and engineering, page 786

       Synonyms: guide, conductor

   11. businessA branch or small vein, not important in itself, but indicating the proximity of a better one.

       Synonyms: guide, conductor

   12. nauticalA block of hard wood pierced with suitable holes for leading ropes in their proper places.

       Synonyms: guide, conductor

   13. engineeringThe drive wheel in any kind of machinery.

       Synonyms: guide, conductor, driver, drive wheel

   14. climatologyThe path taken by electrons from a cloud to ground level, determining the shape of a bolt of lightning.

       Synonyms: guide, conductor

plural Leaders

1. countableuncountableA surname originating as an occupation for a person who led a horse and cart.
2. countableuncountableA river in north Canterbury, New Zealand, which joins the (Canterbury) Waiau.
3. countableuncountableA town surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Happyland No. 231, western Saskatchewan, Canada, originally named Prussia.
4. countableuncountableA populated place in Adams County, Colorado, United States.