league

English

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• IPA: /liːɡ/, X-SAMPA: /li:g/
• Rhymes: -iːɡ

Etymology 1

Middle English ligg, from Middle French ligue, from Italian lega, from the verb legare, from Latin ligō (“to tie”).

Noun

league (plural leagues)

1. A group or association of cooperating members.

   The Red-headed League in Sherlock Holmes stories.

2. An organization of sports teams which play against one another for a championship.

   My favorite sports organizations are the National Football League and the American League in baseball.

3. (informal) Rugby league.

   Are you going to watch the league tonight?

Derived terms

• bush league
• in a league of one's own
• in league (with)
• major league
• minor league
• out of one's league
• seven-league boots

Translations

a group or association of cooperating members

• Catalan: lliga (ca) f
• Cherokee: ᎤᎾᏙᏢᎯ (chr) (unadotlvhi)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 同盟 (cmn) (tóngméng), 聯盟 (cmn), 联盟 (cmn) (liánméng)

• French: ligue (fr) f
• German: Liga (de) f, Bund (de) n
• Japanese: 連盟 (ja) (れんめい, renmei), 同盟 (ja) (どうめい, dōmei)

• Polish: liga f, przymierze n
• Portuguese: aliança (pt) f, liga (pt) f
• Romanian: alianță (ro) f, coaliție (ro) f, ligă (ro)
• Russian: лига (ru) (líga) f
• Serbo-Croatian: лига (sh) f, liga (sh)}
• Spanish: alianza (es) f, liga (es) f
• Swahili: ligi (sw)

organization of sports teams

• Catalan: lliga (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 聯盟 (cmn), 联盟 (cmn) (liánméng)

• Czech: liga (cs) f
• Finnish: liiga (fi)
• French: ligue (fr) f
• German: Liga (de) f
• Japanese: リーグ (ja) (rīgu)
• Luhya: eligi
• Polish: liga (pl) f

• Portuguese: liga (pt) f
• Romanian: ligă (ro) f
• Russian: лига (ru) (líga) f
• Serbo-Croatian: лига (sh) f, liga (sh)
• Slovene: liga (sl) f
• Spanish: liga (es) f
• Swahili: ligi (sw)
• Turkish: lig (tr)
• Ukrainian: ліга (uk) (líha) f

Verb

league (third-person singular simple present leagues, present participle leaguing, simple past and past participle leagued)

1. To form an association; to unite in a league or confederacy; to combine for mutual support.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of South to this entry?)

Translations

to form an association

• Polish: sprzymierzać się, sprzymierzyć się
• Portuguese: associar-se (pt)
• Romanian: a se alia (ro), a se coaliza (ro)

• Serbo-Croatian: koalirati (sh)
• Spanish: asociarse (es)
• Swahili: ligi (sw)

Etymology 2

From Late Latin leuga, possibly from Gaulish or Celtic.

Noun

league (plural leagues)

1. (measurement) The distance that a person can walk in one hour, commonly taken to be approximately three English miles (about five kilometers).
   • M. Le Page Du Pratz, History of Louisiana (PG), p. 47

     Seven leagues above the mouth of the river we meet with two other passes, as large as the middle one by which we entered.

2. A stone erected near a public road to mark the distance of a league.

References

• Online Etymology, league
• Middle English Dictionary, lege

Translations

distance

• Bulgarian: левга (bg) (lévga) f
• Esperanto: leŭgo (eo)
• French: lieue (fr) f
• German: Wegstunde (de) f, (obsolete) Meile (de) f, (obsolete) Leuge (de) f
• Portuguese: légua (pt) f

• Romanian: leghe (ro)
• Russian: лье (ru) (lʹje) n (indeclinable), ли́га (ru) (líga) f
• Serbo-Croatian: liga (sh)
• Spanish: legua (es) f
• Turkish: fersah (tr)