Meaning
A vegetable of variety Allium ampeloprasum, having edible leaves and an onion-like bulb but with a milder flavour than the onion.
Etymology
Origin: Old English
From Middle English leek, leeke, lek, leke, leyke, from Old English lēac, lēc (“allium; garlic or leek”), from Proto-West Germanic *lauk, from Proto-Germanic *laukaz (“leek”), from *leukaną, *lūkaną (“to close, shut”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewg- (“to bend”). Cognates Cognate with Alemannic German Làuich (“leek”), Dutch look (“leek”), Plautdietsch Luak (“leek”), German Lauch (“leek”), Danish løg (“onion”), Faroese leykur (“onion”), Icelandic laukur (“garlic, leek, onion”), Norwegian Bokmål løk (“onion”), Norwegian Nynorsk lauk, løk (“onion”), Swedish lök (“onion”), Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Russian лук (luk, “onion”), Polabian lauk (“garlic”), Serbo-Croatian лу̏к, lȕk (“onion; garlic”), Estonian lauk (“allium”), Finnish and Ingrian laukka (“onion”), Livonian lōka (“onion”), Livvi laukku (“onion”), Ludian lauk (“leek; onion”); also Gaulish lunget (“to load”), Irish fulaing (“to bear; to support; to sustain; to mountain”), Scottish Gaelic fuiling, fulaing (“to suffer; to stand; to allow; to bear”), Welsh gollwng (“to drop, release; to leak; to dissolve”), Latin luxus (“dislocated”), Ancient Greek λύγος (lúgos, “chaste tree; flexible twig, withe”), Albanian vlug (“peak”), Sanskrit रुग्ण (rugṇa, “bent, broken, checked; diseased, infirm, sick”). See garlic.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms
NYT Puzzle Appearances
Accepted in 18 recorded puzzles:
- 2026-05-26EAKCBIL
- 2026-05-01LCKIEDH
- 2026-04-03KALEDFN
- 2026-01-23KBLDCEO
- 2025-11-14KANOBLE
- 2025-10-10LEIKPYU
- 2025-04-20LBOIEKX
- 2025-03-08KCNIELT
- 2025-01-23EOBMKIL
- 2024-10-13KTALOFE
- 2024-02-20EFNLKMO
- 2023-12-20EOALCBK
+6 earlier appearances in the archive.