les

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English

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US), IPA(key): /lɛz/
    • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛz

Noun

les (plural leses)

  1. (slang, colloquial, derogatory) Clipping of lesbian.

Adjective

les (comparative more les, superlative most les)

  1. (slang, colloquial, derogatory) Clipping of lesbian.

Anagrams

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch les (lesson), from Middle Dutch lesse, from Latin lēctiō.

Pronunciation

Noun

les (plural lesse, diminutive lessie)

  1. lesson

Aragonese

Etymology

From Latin ille (that one).

Pronoun

les

  1. them (indirect object)

Synonyms

Asturian

Etymology

From Latin illas.

Article

les f pl (masculine sg el, feminine sg la, neuter sg lo, masculine plural los)

  1. (definite) the

Catalan

Etymology 1

Inherited from Latin illās, from ille.

Pronunciation

Article

les f pl (masculine plural els, masculine singular el, feminine singular la)

  1. the; feminine plural definite article

Pronoun

les (enclitic and proclitic)

  1. them (feminine, direct object)
Declension

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin laesus.

Pronunciation

Adjective

les (feminine lesa, masculine plural lesos, feminine plural leses)

  1. (law) harmed
Derived terms
Related terms

Further reading

Czech

Czech Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia cs

Etymology

Inherited from Old Czech les, from Proto-Slavic *lěsъ.

Pronunciation

Noun

les m inan

  1. forest
    Synonym: hvozd

Declension

Related terms

nouns
adjectives
proverb

Further reading

  • les in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
  • les in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989
  • les in Internetová jazyková příručka

Danish

Noun

les c

  1. indefinite genitive singular of le

Dutch

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch lesse, from Latin lēctiō.

Noun

les f (plural lessen, diminutive lesje n)

  1. course, lesson
Derived terms
Descendants
  • Afrikaans: les
  • Caribbean Javanese: lès
  • Indonesian: les
  • Papiamentu: lès, les

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

les

  1. inflection of lessen:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. imperative

Anagrams

Further reading

  • les” in Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal – Officiële Spelling, Nederlandse Taalunie.

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French les, from Old French les, from Latin illōs m and illās f which are the accusative plurals of ille.

Pronunciation

Article

les

  1. plural of le: the
  2. plural of la: the

Usage notes

  • de les is never used: contracted into des.
  • à les is never used: contracted into aux.

Pronoun

les m pl or f pl

  1. plural of le: them
  2. plural of la: them

Related terms

References

  1. ^ Dauzat, Albert; Jean Dubois, Henri Mitterand (1964), “le, la, les”, in Nouveau dictionnaire étymologique (in French), Paris: Librairie Larousse

Further reading

Anagrams

Galician

Verb

les

  1. second-person singular present indicative of ler

German

Pronunciation

Verb

les

  1. (colloquial) first-person singular present of lesen
    Synonym: (standard) lese
  2. (colloquial) singular imperative of lesen
    Synonym: (standard) lies

Hungarian

Etymology

From Proto-Ugric *läćɜ (hiding place; lurk). Cognates include Southern Mansi (lǟš-), Northern Mansi (lāś-).

Pronunciation

Noun

les (plural lesek)

  1. cover, hideaway, ambush (the place where one is concealed, in wait to attack by surprise, or the act of concealing oneself there)
    Synonyms: lesállás, leshely
    Hypernyms: búvóhely, rejtekhely, (hiding place in general) rejtek
  2. (hunting) hide, blind
  3. (soccer) offside
    Synonyms: lesállás, leshelyzet

Declension

Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony)
singular plural
nominative les lesek
accusative lest leseket
dative lesnek leseknek
instrumental lessel lesekkel
causal-final lesért lesekért
translative lessé lesekké
terminative lesig lesekig
essive-formal lesként lesekként
essive-modal
inessive lesben lesekben
superessive lesen leseken
adessive lesnél leseknél
illative lesbe lesekbe
sublative lesre lesekre
allative leshez lesekhez
elative lesből lesekből
delative lesről lesekről
ablative lestől lesektől
non-attributive
possessive - singular
lesé leseké
non-attributive
possessive - plural
leséi lesekéi
Possessive forms of les
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. lesem leseim
2nd person sing. lesed leseid
3rd person sing. lese lesei
1st person plural lesünk leseink
2nd person plural lesetek leseitek
3rd person plural lesük leseik

Derived terms

Expressions

Verb

les

  1. (transitive) to spy, peep, peek, pry
  2. (transitive) to stare, goggle, eye
  3. (transitive, intransitive) to cheat at a test by looking at someone else's work

Conjugation

Derived terms

(With verbal prefixes):

References

  1. ^ Entry #1792 in Uralonet, online Uralic etymological database of the Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics.
  2. ^ les in Zaicz, Gábor (ed.). Etimológiai szótár: Magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete (‘Dictionary of Etymology: The origin of Hungarian words and affixes’). Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2006, →ISBN.  (See also its 2nd edition.)

Further reading

  • (ambush): les in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
  • (to spy): les in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

Icelandic

Pronunciation

Noun

les n (genitive singular less, nominative plural les)

  1. (linguistics) lexeme (set of inflected forms taken by a single word)
  2. (computing) lexeme (individual instance of a continuous character sequence without spaces, used in lexical analysis)

Declension

Synonyms

Derived terms

See also

Verb

les

  1. first-person singular of lesa (to read)
    Ég les mikið af þýskum bókum.
    I read a lot of German books.
  2. third-person singular of lesa (to read)
    Pálmi les alltaf sömu söguna, þótt hann eigi margar bækur.
    Pálmi always reads the same story, even though he has many books.

Indonesian

Etymology 1

From Dutch les (course, lesson), from Middle Dutch lesse, from Latin lēctiō.

Pronunciation

Noun

lès (first-person possessive lesku, second-person possessive lesmu, third-person possessive lesnya)

  1. (education, colloquial) cram school, private tuition.

Verb

lès

  1. (education, colloquial) to cram, to study hard, to learn at cram school.

Etymology 2

From Dutch lis (reed).

Pronunciation

Noun

lès (first-person possessive lesku, second-person possessive lesmu, third-person possessive lesnya)

  1. rein.

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

Noun

lês (first-person possessive lesku, second-person possessive lesmu, third-person possessive lesnya)

  1. alternative spelling of lis

Further reading

Interlingua

Pronoun

les

  1. (dative) to them

Usage notes

  • Precedes conjugated verbs.
  • Can be of mixed gender (not just masculine).

Ladin

Etymology

From Latin illas.

Article

les f (plural)

  1. the

See also

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old English lēas (false, void, loose).

Cognate with Middle High German lōs (loose), Old Swedish lø̄s (loose); a doublet of loos.

Pronunciation

Adjective

les

  1. false; lying; deceptive

Noun

les (uncountable)

  1. falsehood; a lie
    • 15th c., “[The Creation]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 5, lines 120–121:
      He is so fayre, withoutten les, / he semys full well to sytt on des.
      He is so good, without falsehood; / (so) he's really suited to sit on a dais.
    • c. 1480, “The Creation”, in The Towneley Plays, lines 158–159:
      We held with hym ther he saide leasse / And therfor have we all unpeasse.
      We stayed with him when he uttered untruth, / and therefore we all feel discord.
    • c. 1480, “The Creation”, in The Towneley Plays, lines 193–195:
      Ye shall have joye and blis therin / Whils ye will kepe you out of syn, / I say withoutten lese.
      You'll have joy and tranquility within / if you keep yourself out of sin, / I say, without lies.

Middle French

Etymology

from Old French les, from Latin illōs m and illās f

Article

les m pl or f pl (masculine singular le, feminine singular la)

  1. the

Descendants

Norman

Norman Definite Articles
singular plural
masculine le / l' les
feminine  la / l' les

Pronunciation

  • (file)

Article

les pl (singular , and la)

  1. Alternative form of l's
    les boutonsthe nipples
    les êpicesthe spices
    les lédgeunmesthe vegetables
    les ridgieauxthe curtains
    • 2013 March, Geraint Jennings, “Mar martello”, in The Town Crier, archived from the original on 13 March 2016, page 20:
      Dans les clios étout nou vait des tracteurs et des machinnes tandi qu'lé travas du fèrmyi r'prend san rhythme coumme tréjous.
      In the fields tractors and machines can be seen too as farm work picks up again as always.

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

les

  1. imperative of lese

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

les

  1. present tense of lesa
  2. imperative of lesa

Old Czech

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *lěsъ.

Pronunciation

Noun

les m inan

  1. forest
    Synonym: hvozd

Declension

Descendants

Further reading

Old French

Etymology

From Latin illas and illos.

Article

les

  1. the (feminine plural oblique definite article)
  2. the (feminine plural nominative definite article)
  3. the (masculine plural oblique definite article)

Inflection

Descendants

Old Irish

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Pronoun

les

  1. third-person singular masculine of la
Alternative forms

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Noun

les m

  1. Alternative spelling of less (benefit, advantage)

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Nasalization
les
also lles after a proclitic
les
pronounced with /l(ʲ)-/
unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Old Slovak

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *lě̑sъ. First attested in 1386.

Noun

les m inan

  1. forest, woods (dense uncultivated tract of trees)

Descendants

References

  • Majtán, Milan et al., editors (1991–2008), “les”, in Historický slovník slovenského jazyka [Historical Dictionary of the Slovak Language] (in Slovak), volume 1–7 (A – Ž), Bratislava: VEDA, →OCLC

Rohingya

Etymology

Compare with Bengali লেজ (lej).

Noun

les

  1. tail

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Bulgarian лес (les).

Noun

les n (plural lesuri)

  1. (Oltenia) thicket

Declension

References

  • les in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *lěsъ (tree, forest).

Alternative forms

Noun

lȇs m (Cyrillic spelling ле̑с)

  1. coffin
  2. (regionally) lumber
  3. (regionally) forest, woods
Declension

Etymology 2

From German Löss.

Noun

lȇs m (Cyrillic spelling ле̑с)

  1. (geology) loess

Slovak

Slovak Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia sk

Etymology

Inherited from Old Slovak les, from Proto-Slavic *lěsъ.

Pronunciation

Noun

les m inan (genitive singular lesa, nominative plural lesy, genitive plural lesov, declension pattern of dub)

  1. forest

Declension


Further reading

  • les”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2024

Slovene

Slovene Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia sl

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *lěsъ.

Pronunciation

Noun

lẹ̑s m inan

at v lesu
to v les
from iz lesa
  1. (uncountable) wood
    Synonyms: lesovina, lesnina, lesna snov
  2. (uncommon, uncountable) trees in a forest
    Synonyms: drevo, drev
  3. (usually in the plural, archaic or literary) forest, woods
    Synonyms: gozd, boršt, gmajna, gaj, gošča, gozdek, gozdič, gozdiček, gozdni labirint, hosta, lesovje, log, loza, šuma
  4. (Christianity, rare) cross
    Synonyms: križ, krucifiks

Declension

First masculine declension (hard o-stem, inanimate, -ov- infix), long mixed accent
nom. sing. lẹ̑s
gen. sing. lesȃ
singular dual plural
nominative
imenovȃlnik
lẹ̑s lesȏva lesȏvi
genitive
rodȋlnik
lesȃ lesóv lesóv
dative
dajȃlnik
lẹ̑su, lẹ̑si lesȏvoma, lesȏvama lesȏvom, lẹ̑sȏvam
accusative
tožȋlnik
lẹ̑s lesȏva lesȏve
locative
mẹ̑stnik
lẹ̑su, lẹ̑si lesȏvih lesȏvih
instrumental
orọ̑dnik
lẹ̑som lesȏvoma, lesȏvama lesȏvi
(vocative)
(ogȏvorni imenovȃlnik)
lẹ̑s lesȏva lesȏvi



  • stylistically marked
First masculine declension (hard o-stem, inanimate), fixed accent
nom. sing. lẹ̑s
gen. sing. lẹ̑sa
singular dual plural
nominative
imenovȃlnik
lẹ̑s lẹ̑sa lẹ̑si
genitive
rodȋlnik
lẹ̑sa lẹ̑sov lẹ̑sov
dative
dajȃlnik
lẹ̑su, lẹ̑si lẹ̑soma, lẹ̑sama lẹ̑som, lẹ̑sam
accusative
tožȋlnik
lẹ̑s lẹ̑sa lẹ̑se
locative
mẹ̑stnik
lẹ̑su, lẹ̑si lẹ̑sih, lẹ̑sah lẹ̑sih, lẹ̑sah
instrumental
orọ̑dnik
lẹ̑som lẹ̑soma, lẹ̑sama lẹ̑si
(vocative)
(ogȏvorni imenovȃlnik)
lẹ̑s lẹ̑sa lẹ̑si


Derived terms

Further reading

  • les”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran
  • les”, in Termania, Amebis
  • See also the general references

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /les/
  • Rhymes: -es
  • Syllabification: les

Etymology 1

Inherited from Latin illīs, dative plural of ille.

Pronoun

les

  1. dative of ellos and ellas; to them, for them
  2. dative of ustedes; to you all, for you all (formal)
  3. (gender-neutral, neologism) dative of elles; to them, for them
    Les pedí que por favor hagan silencio.
    I asked them to please be quiet.

See also

Etymology 2

Gender-neutral e replaces the gendered endings/elements a and o.

Article

les gender-neutral pl

  1. (gender-neutral, neologism) the (plural)
    Les estudiantes están prestando atención a la clase.
    The students are paying attention to the class.

Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English lazy.

Adjective

les

  1. lazy
  2. tired, fed up

Verb

les

  1. be lazy
  2. be tired, be fed up

Welsh

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English lace.

Noun

les f (plural lesau, not mutable)

  1. lace (light fabric patterned with holes)

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Middle English lease, from Anglo-Norman les, from Old French lais, lez (a lease).

Noun

les f (plural lesoedd, not mutable)

  1. lease
Alternative forms
Derived terms

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

les

  1. Soft mutation of lles.

Further reading

  • R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “les”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
lles les unchanged unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.