Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The introductory portion of a news story, especially the first sentence.
from The Century Dictionary.
- A Middle English form of
lead . - A Middle English form of
lead . - noun A man; in the plural, men; people.
- noun plural Tenements; holdings; possessions.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun singular A
man ;person . - noun Scotland
Men ;people ,folk . - noun Scotland, singular A
people ornation . - noun plural
Tenements ;holdings ;possessions . - noun US, journalism The
introductory paragraph(s) of anewspaper or other newsarticle .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the introductory section of a story
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word lede.
Examples
-
Undoubtedly a moving and important story (I'll definitely check it out), but ... the lede is a little treacly, don't you think?
-
Therefore, the lede is not an exaggeration, but a reminder.
Matthew Yglesias » Kathryn Jean-Lopez and Rush Limbaugh Are Not Very Intelligent
-
The lede is a girls basketball team, but the lessons are larger: Davids win all the time.
-
The lede is that Grover puts forward a hypothetical in which it is assumed that the GOP can come up with ten good ideas, and also that teh Democrats would reject any such good ideas out of hand.
-
It's a nice article, but the lede is slightly off-base.
-
Therefore, the lede is not an exaggeration, but a reminder.
Matthew Yglesias » Kathryn Jean-Lopez and Rush Limbaugh Are Not Very Intelligent
-
In the news journalism industry, particularly in the US, the particular news-style of lead used is sometimes referred to as a lede.
Elizabeth Boleman-Herring: Still Seeking 'The Ineffable' in 2012
-
"Superdelegates Give Themselves Wiggle Room on Clinton-Obama" (Mike Soraghan, The Hill) Reporter Soraghan's lede is good: "As the fight over superdelegates gets harder, some of the superdelegate endorsements are getting softer."
-
The lede is particularly sparkling: Brünnhilde made a guest appearance Friday night in the middle of J.S. Bach's joyous Cantata No. 51 ( "Jauchzet Gott!"), a piece usually sung by lyric sopranos of the Kathleen Battle mold.
-
The lede is particularly sparkling: Brünnhilde made a guest appearance Friday night in the middle of J.S. Bach's joyous Cantata No. 51 ( "Jauchzet Gott!"), a piece usually sung by lyric sopranos of the Kathleen Battle mold.
tbtabby commented on the word lede
Usually used in the context of newspaper articles, for the first sentence which sums up the topic of the article. There are some very strange ledes out there. Here's one from MSNBC: "A carpenter who keeps his clothes clean by working in the nude was arrested after a client returned home early and found him building bookcases in the buff."
March 28, 2009
swordnik commented on the word lede
It's interesting that 'lede' doesn't appear under the sense of 'lead' or 'intro' in the Century or OED. Wikipedia says it's journo-jargon, ostensibly used to differentiate itself from 'lead' or 'leading', the typographical property:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_style#Lead_or_intro
It's also not a valid Scrabble word under TWL or SOWPODS.
January 18, 2010