Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A location where male animals of the same species gather and often present displays and where females go to select a male to mate with.
  • noun A group of males gathered at such a place.
  • intransitive verb To have a mating system in which males form leks.
  • intransitive verb To participate in a lek.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An assemblage of black cocks, Tetrao tetrix, during the pairing season, when the birds select their mates.
  • A dialectal variant of lake.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The currency unit of Albania, divided into 100 qindarka.
  • noun biology An aggregation of male animals for the purposes of courtship and display.
  • verb biology To take part in the courtship and display behaviour of a lek.
  • verb UK, dialect, Yorkshire, colloquial To play.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the basic unit of money in Albania

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for Swedish lekställe, playground, mating ground (as of black grouse) : lek, play, sport, mating; see fartlek + ställe, place.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Albanian, after Lek, Dukagjin, 15th-century Albanian feudal lord and lawgiver.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Albanian lek.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Germanic roots meaning "play". In the biology sense, it comes specifically from Swedish lek ("child's play") in 1871, by means of Swedish leka ("to play").

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Examples

  • Lekking behavior, biologists call it, and the display site itself is known as a lek.

    The Song of The Dodo David Quammen 2004

  • Lekking behavior, biologists call it, and the display site itself is known as a lek.

    The Song of The Dodo David Quammen 2004

  • I have no doubt the two party crashers at my lek were the same two I had flushed off their pole four miles back.

    grouse Diary Entry grouse 2003

  • Fortunately we were off to finally check Scottys Peak lek, which is only about a dozen miles from town.

    grouse Diary Entry grouse 2002

  • In ornithology, a lek is a pocket of forest where male birds put on curious sexual displays.

    NYT > Home Page By ANTHONY DOERR 2011

  • The only known 'lek' mating system in any marine mammal in the world is observable amongst South Cove dugong.

    Shark Bay, Australia 2008

  • (It wasn't until I was parked at the second new lek, which is actually the first new lek, that I remember one if the reasons I bought this Olympus camera is because it can use regular alkaline batteries.

    grouse Diary Entry grouse 2005

  • "The female Twi'lek's voice was tinged with just a touch of cynicism.

    The Cat is a Metaphor 2010

  • We did not find the lek but discovered some beautiful natural outcrops of rock and juniper, and raced from one to the next, proclaiming each rock-and-tree arrangement more handsome than the last.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • We did not find the lek but discovered some beautiful natural outcrops of rock and juniper, and raced from one to the next, proclaiming each rock-and-tree arrangement more handsome than the last.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

Comments

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  • A traditional place where males assemble during the mating season and engage in competitive displays that attract females.

    Oh, I forgot to say "birds." Male birds. ;->

    October 13, 2007

  • Haha, how could the dictionary leave that part out?

    October 13, 2007

  • Also the currency of Albania (I think).

    October 13, 2007

  • Yes, see its presence on my Filthy Stinking Rich list.

    October 13, 2007

  • They must need an editor, uselessness.

    Yes, it is Albanian currency, but that should never be used to buy a girl bird a drink. Unless, of course, you're in Albania.

    October 13, 2007

  • *holding head*

    October 13, 2007

  • Errrr - certain ungulates and I think some bats use leks as well...

    October 13, 2007

  • True, trivet. But they probably have more fun at the bars.

    October 13, 2007

  • ...showing off to the opposite sex in groups is a strategy used by many animals (it is known as lekking).

    - "Why Music?", The Economist, vol. 389 no. 8611, p. 42

    December 24, 2008

  • Sorry darling, you're out of lek.

    October 22, 2009

  • "Men show off; women pretend to be impressed—the eternal circle of the selective lek."

    Winter by Adam Gopnik, p 147 of the House of Anansi paperback edition

    June 23, 2012

  • One of the most brilliantly coloured of South American birds (and there are many) is the Andean cock-of-the-rock. The male has the most intensely red body, a jet-black tail and outermost wing feathers, and unexpectedly silvery-white innermost wing feathers. So-named because it nests among rocks on cliff ledges, and because of its cocky Mohican-like crest, this pigeon-sized bird is a major draw to birdwatchers visiting Ecuador. The males display in groups, referred to as 'leks' . . . .
    Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (New York: Walker & Co., 2012), pp. 19-20.

    May 30, 2016

  • My new favorite word, birdwise.

    December 19, 2019