Meanings
plural leverages
- uncountableusuallyA force compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot.
A crowbar uses leverage to pry nails out of wood.
1 more example
In order to proportion the braking force to the weight carried by a wheel - a matter of special importance in the braking of wagons - variable leverage systems are now being introduced in which the end of one axle spring is linked to a control spring in the change-over valve, so automatically varying the leverage exerted by the brake-rod according to whether the wagon is full or empty.
1960 April, “The braking of trains”, in Trains Illustrated, page 237Synonyms: mechanical advantage
- broadlyuncountableusuallyAny influence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage.
Try using competitors’ prices for leverage in the negotiation.
1 more example
The former Forest man, who passed a late fitness test, appeared to use Guy Moussi for leverage before nodding in David Fox's free-kick at the far post - his 22nd goal of the season.
2011 April 15, Saj Chowdhury, “Norwich 2 - 1 Nott'm Forest”, in BBC Sport - uncountableusuallybusinessThe use of borrowed funds with a contractually determined return to increase the ability to invest and earn an expected higher return, but usually at high risk.
Leverage is great until something goes wrong with your investments and you still have to pay your debts.
3 more examples
Online margin trading is usually based on leverage, where the brokerage effectively lets you borrow more money than you have deposited as collateral.
2011, Brian Dolan, Currency Trading For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 55Both exchanges offer crypto derivatives, which are bets on future fluctuations in cryptocurrency prices. They also offer extreme leverage — up to 125 times on Binance. That means a $1,000 down payment can be turned into a $125,000 gamble.
2021 July 23, Eric Lipton, Ephrat Livni, “‘I Feel Conflicted’: Crypto’s Offshore Trading Moguls Talk Shop”, in The New York Times, →ISSNS.E.C. rules cap E.T.F.s from offering more than two times leverage. The nine fund managers who received a letter from the S.E.C. sought to introduce products that offered three and, in some cases, five times leverage.
2025 December 5, “Why the Battle for Warner Bros. Discovery May Not Be Over Yet”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC - uncountableusuallybusinessThe debt-to-equity ratio.
In such cases where there is a multiple capital structure the factor known as leverage comes into play.
1933 June 4, “Trusts Heartened by Security Rally”, in New York TimesSynonyms: gearing
- uncountableusuallybusinessThe ability to earn very high returns when operating at high-capacity utilization of a facility.
Their variable-cost-reducing investments have dramatically increased their leverage.
Synonyms: operating leverage
- uncountableusuallyregression analyticsmathematicsThe distance of between an independent observation and other observations.
present singular third person leverages · participle present leveraging · participle past leveraged · past leveraged
- USslangtransitivebusinessTo use; to exploit; to manipulate in order to take full advantage (of something).
They plan to leverage the publicity into a good distribution agreement.
5 more examples
They plan to leverage off the publicity to get a good distribution agreement.
EAP research has developed advanced methods for producing corpus-informed vocabulary resources, but these have yet to be fully leveraged to promote disciplinary literacy within the secondary school context.
2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 105Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide (AIR) today announced that Sompo International, a global specialty provider of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, is leveraging AIR's casualty analytics platform, Arium, to better understand and quantify its liability and loss potential across multiple commercial liability lines of business.
2019 June 19, “Sompo International to Leverage AIR's Innovative Casualty Analytics Solution for Multi-Line Risk Analysis”, in CNN Money, archived from the original on 14 May 2025Thomas H. Lee, a private equity financier who pioneered the use of leveraged buyouts that helped to reshape corporate America, has died, according to a notice from his former firm that still bears his name.
2023 February 24, Chris Isidore, “Thomas H. Lee, pioneer of leveraged buyouts, is dead at 78”, in CNNRussian forces continue to prioritize their offensive push towards Pokrovsk, and the operational significance of seizing the city will likely in part depend on the Russian military's ability to leverage the city in wider operational maneuver in Donetsk Oblast.
2024 October 3, Riley Bailey, Angelica Evans, Grace Mappes, Davit Gasparyan, Nate Trotter, Frederick W. Kagan, “Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, October 3, 2024”, in Ukraine Project, Institute for the Study of War
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA force compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot.
nounThe debt-to-equity ratio.
nounThe ability to earn very high returns when operating at high-capacity utilization of a facility.
verbTo use; to exploit; to manipulate in order to take full advantage (of something).
More synonyms by meaning
nounthe mechanical advantage gained by being in a position to use a lever
nouninvesting with borrowed money as a way to amplify potential gains (at the risk of greater losses)
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From lever + -age. The verb likely comes from martial arts/judo usage, where one would "use an opponent's leverage (i.e. their weight, height, centre of balance, etc.)" against them in order to defeat them.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan palanca, influència
- palancaforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- influènciainfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- avantatgeinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- palanquejamentuse of borrowed funds
- rendimentability to earn very high returns
- aprofitaruse, exploit, take full advantage of
Chinese Mandarin 槓桿 /杠杆, 利用
- 槓桿 /杠杆 (gànggǎn)use of borrowed funds
- 利用 (lìyòng)use, exploit, take full advantage of
Czech využít, vytěžit
- využítuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- vytěžituse, exploit, take full advantage of
- zúročituse, exploit, take full advantage of
Danish løftestang, indflydelse
- løftestangforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- indflydelseinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- indvirkninginfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
Dutch hefboom, hefboomkracht
- hefboomforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- hefboomkrachtforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- hefboominfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- hefboomkrachtinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- invloedinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- voordeelinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- leverageuse of borrowed funds
- hefboomfondsuse of borrowed funds
Esperanto influo, levil-efika prunto
- influoinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- levil-efika pruntouse of borrowed funds
- avantaĝutiligiuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- uzi levilan efikonuse, exploit, take full advantage of
Finnish vipuvoima, vaikutusvalta
- vipuvoimaforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- vaikutusvaltainfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- vipuvarsiinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- vipuvoimainfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- vipuvarsiuse of borrowed funds
- vivuttaminenuse of borrowed funds
- hyödyntääuse, exploit, take full advantage of
French effet de levier, profiter (de quelque chose)
- effet de levieruse of borrowed funds
- profiter (de quelque chose)use, exploit, take full advantage of
- exploiteruse, exploit, take full advantage of
- tirer parti (de quelque chose)use, exploit, take full advantage of
German Hebelwirkung, Hebel
- Hebelwirkungforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- Hebelforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- Hebelkraftforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- Einflussinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- verstärkter Druckinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- Fremdfinanzierungsgraduse of borrowed funds
- Fremdkapitalaufnahmeuse of borrowed funds
- Verschuldungsgraduse of borrowed funds
- Hebelwirkunguse of borrowed funds
- Hebelwirkungability to earn very high returns
- Hebelability to earn very high returns
- aushebelnuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- hebelnuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- wirksam einsetzenuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- voll zunutze machenuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- ausnutzenuse, exploit, take full advantage of
Greek μόχλευση, μόχλευση
- μόχλευση (móchlefsi)force compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- μόχλευση (móchlefsi)use of borrowed funds
- αξιοποιώ (axiopoió)use, exploit, take full advantage of
- εκμεταλλεύομαι (ekmetallévomai)use, exploit, take full advantage of
Hebrew הנפה, מינף
- הנפה (hanafa)influence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- מינף (minéf)use, exploit, take full advantage of
Hungarian emelőerő, befolyás
- emelőerőforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- befolyásinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- tőkeáttételability to earn very high returns
- kihasználuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- kiaknázuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- hasznosítuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- hasznot húzuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- profitáluse, exploit, take full advantage of
- bevetuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- ráveszuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- eléruse, exploit, take full advantage of
- befolyásoluse, exploit, take full advantage of
Irish luamhánacht, cumas luamháin
- luamhánachtforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- cumas luamháinforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- tioncharinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
Italian potenza, leveraggio
- potenzaforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- leveraggioforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- levaforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- influenzainfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- fare leva suuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- approfittare diuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- avvantaggiarsi diuse, exploit, take full advantage of
Japanese レバレッジ, レバ
- レバレッジ (rebarejji)use of borrowed funds
- レバ (reba)use of borrowed funds
Norwegian dra fordel av, profittere på
- dra fordel avuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- profittere påuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- utnytteuse, exploit, take full advantage of
Polish siła nacisku, naciski
- siła naciskuforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- naciskiinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- dźwignia finansowause of borrowed funds
- lewarowanieuse of borrowed funds
- wykorzystywaćuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- wykorzystaćuse, exploit, take full advantage of
Portuguese alavancagem, alavancagem
- alavancagemforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- alavancagemuse of borrowed funds
- aproveitaruse, exploit, take full advantage of
Russian рыча́г, рыча́г
- рыча́г (ryčág)force compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- рыча́г (ryčág)influence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- максима́льно испо́льзовать (maksimálʹno ispólʹzovatʹ)use, exploit, take full advantage of
- применя́ть (primenjátʹ)use, exploit, take full advantage of
- улучша́ть (ulučšátʹ)use, exploit, take full advantage of
- оптимизи́ровать (optimizírovatʹ)use, exploit, take full advantage of
- вы́годно испо́льзовать (výgodno ispólʹzovatʹ)use, exploit, take full advantage of
Slovak použiť pákový efekt
- použiť pákový efektuse, exploit, take full advantage of
Spanish palanca, palanqueo
- palancaforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- palanqueoforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- apalancamientoforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- enchufeinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- palancainfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- apalancamientouse of borrowed funds
- rendimientoability to earn very high returns
- aprovechar (se de)use, exploit, take full advantage of
- apalancaruse, exploit, take full advantage of
- palanquearuse, exploit, take full advantage of
Swedish hävstång, hävstångseffekt
- hävstångforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- hävstångseffektforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- inflytandeinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- hävstångseffektinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- hävstånguse of borrowed funds
- hävstångseffektuse of borrowed funds
Turkish kaldıraç kuvveti, koz
- kaldıraç kuvvetiforce compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot
- kozinfluence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage
- manivelaability to earn very high returns
- (birini) kullanmakuse, exploit, take full advantage of
- nüfuz etmekuse, exploit, take full advantage of
Cite this entry
leverage. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/leverage
“leverage.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/leverage. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “leverage,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/leverage.
Source: leverage on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.