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''leal'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260919121947-00-⌔

leal - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

leal (comparative lealer, superlative lealest) (now chiefly Scotland)

  • Loyal, honest.
    • ✤ Mr Toots, like the leal and trusty soul he was, stopped the cabriolet in a twinkling, and told Susan Nipper of his commission, at which she cried more than before.1
    • ✤ We thank you for the pure white fire of his goodness, for the red sword of justice in his hand, for the love he bears his leal people.2
  • True, genuine.
    • ✤ The lealest lover time can show,/Doomed for a lady-love to languish,/Among these solitudes doth go,/A prey to every kind of anguish.3

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English leel, lel, borrowed from Anglo-Norman leal and Old French leial, from Latin lēgālis. Doublet of loyal and legal.

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /liːl/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -iːl

Printed 2026-09-19.

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Footnotes

  1. 1848, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son: ↩

  2. 2000 August 8, George R[aymond] R[ichard] Martin, “Jon[Snow]”, in A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire; 3), London: Voyager, →ISBN, page 706: ↩

  3. 1885, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, “In which are Continued the Refinements wherewith Don Quixote Played the Part of a Lover in the Sierra Morena”, in John Ormsby, transl., The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha […] In Four Vols, volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co. […], →OCLC, part I, page 30: ↩