LEFT

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does left mean? 

• LEFT (noun)
  The noun LEFT has 5 senses:

1. location near or direction toward the left side; i.e. the side to the north when a person or object faces east

2. those who support varying degrees of social or political or economic change designed to promote the public welfare

3. the hand that is on the left side of the body

4. the piece of ground in the outfield on the catcher's left

5. a turn toward the side of the body that is on the north when the person is facing east

  Familiarity information: LEFT used as a noun is common.

• LEFT (adjective)
  The adjective LEFT has 4 senses:

1. being or located on or directed toward the side of the body to the west when facing north

2. not used up

3. intended for the left hand

4. of or belonging to the political or intellectual left

  Familiarity information: LEFT used as an adjective is uncommon.

• LEFT (adverb)
  The adverb LEFT has 1 sense:

1. toward or on the left; also used figuratively

  Familiarity information: LEFT used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LEFT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Location near or direction toward the left side; i.e. the side to the north when a person or object faces east

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Context example:

she stood on the left

Hypernyms ("left" is a kind of...):

place; position (the particular portion of space occupied by something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "left"):

left stage; stage left (the part of the stage on the actor's left as the actor faces the audience)

Antonym:

right (location near or direction toward the right side; i.e. the side to the south when a person or object faces east)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Those who support varying degrees of social or political or economic change designed to promote the public welfare

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

left; left wing

Hypernyms ("left" is a kind of...):

faction; sect (a dissenting clique)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The hand that is on the left side of the body

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

left; left hand

Context example:

jab with your left

Hypernyms ("left" is a kind of...):

hand; manus; mitt; paw (the (prehensile) extremity of the superior limb)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The piece of ground in the outfield on the catcher's left

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

left; left field; leftfield

Context example:

the batter flied out to left

Hypernyms ("left" is a kind of...):

parcel; parcel of land; piece of ground; piece of land; tract (an extended area of land)

Holonyms ("left" is a part of...):

outfield (the area of a baseball playing field beyond the lines connecting the bases)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A turn toward the side of the body that is on the north when the person is facing east

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

take a left at the corner

Hypernyms ("left" is a kind of...):

turn; turning (the act of changing or reversing the direction of the course)

• LEFT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Being or located on or directed toward the side of the body to the west when facing north

Context example:

the left bank of a river is bank on your left side when you are facing downstream

Similar:

left-hand (located on or directed toward the left)

leftmost (farthest to the left)

near; nigh (being on the left side)

larboard; port (located on the left side of a ship or aircraft)

Also:

left-handed (using or intended for the left hand)

Attribute:

place; position (the particular portion of space occupied by something)

Antonym:

right (being or located on or directed toward the side of the body to the east when facing north)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not used up

Synonyms:

left; left over; leftover; odd; remaining; unexpended

Context example:

unexpended provisions

Similar:

unexhausted (not used up completely)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Intended for the left hand

Synonyms:

left; left-hand

Context example:

I rarely lose a left-hand glove

Similar:

left-handed (using or intended for the left hand)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Of or belonging to the political or intellectual left

Similar:

liberal (having political or social views favoring reform and progress)

far left (radical or extremely liberal)

leftish (tending toward the political left)

left-of-center; left-wing; leftist (believing in or supporting tenets of the political left)

Also:

liberal (tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition)

socialist; socialistic (advocating or following the socialist principles)

Antonym:

center (of or belonging to neither the right nor the left politically or intellectually)

right (of or belonging to the political or intellectual right)

• LEFT (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Toward or on the left; also used figuratively

Context example:

the political party has moved left

Antonym:

right (toward or on the right; also used figuratively)

 Context examples 

The quarter-strain of dog he had inherited from Kiche had left no mark on him physically, though it had played its part in his mental make-up.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I thought of Elizabeth, of my father, and of Clerval—all left behind, on whom the monster might satisfy his sanguinary and merciless passions.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Why you see, said the waiter, still looking at the light through the tumbler, with one of his eyes shut up, our people don't like things being ordered and left.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

If there was anyone left to stay with the old gentleman, I'd do it tomorrow.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Hal had no fight left in him.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

He lay as we had left him, on his back, with his eyes open and one arm stretched out.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I live at the lodge: the old porter has left.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

We re-entered the room which we had left so tumultuously ten minutes before.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Once the wire is in the right place, the needle is removed and the wire is left in so the doctor will know where the abnormal tissue is.

(Needle-localized biopsy, NCI Dictionary)

Viewed from the side, the disk looks brighter on the left than it does on the right.

(NASA Visualization Shows a Black Hole’s Warped World, NASA)