ley

See also: Ley and leþ

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /leɪ/, /liː/
• Rhymes: -eɪ, -iː

Etymology 1

See lea.

Noun

ley (plural leys)

1. Alternative spelling of lea
2. (agriculture) Arable land used temporarily for hay or grazing.
3. A ley line.
   • 2010, Philip Carr-Gomm, Richard Heygate, The Book of English Magic:

     For a ley hunter, local people – particularly the elderly – can be mines of information. Devereux and Thomson recount how they asked a septuagenarian in a remote village the location of an elusive stone, without mentioning the subject of leys: […]

Derived terms

• Blackbird Leys

Translations

arable land used temporarily for hay or grazing

• Hungarian: ugar (hu), kaszáló (hu), legelő (hu)

ley line — see ley line

Adjective

ley (not comparable)

1. (agriculture) Fallow; unseeded.
2. (agriculture) Rotated to pasture instead of cropping.

Translations

fallow; unseeded

• Hungarian: ugarnak hagyott, ugaron hagyott, vetetlen (hu)

Etymology 2

Noun

ley

1. Archaic form of lye.

Etymology 3

Noun

ley

1. (obsolete) Law.

See also

• peso ley

Anagrams

• Ely, Lye, lye, yel

Chavacano

Etymology

Inherited from Spanish ley.

Noun

ley

1. law

Fula

Preposition

ley

1. (Maasina) in

   A ɗuunnii sukkara ley cafe ɗe.

   You put too much sugar in the coffee.

   O tummbeke ley akalawal mobel am.

   He got into the back of my truck.

   Taa ŋawlunduree ley suudu ga, njehee sella.

   Don't wrestle in the house, go outside.

2. under

References

• Richard Smith, Urs Niggli, Dictionnaire fulfulde - anglais - français, Webonary.org, SIL International, 2016.

Ladino

Etymology

Inherited from Old Spanish ley, from Latin lēgem (whence English legal and legitimate), from Proto-Italic *lēg-, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-s, from *leǵ- (“to gather”).

Noun

ley f (Hebrew spelling ליי)

1. (law) law
   • 2005, Aki Yerushalayim‎^[1], volumes 26–28, page 71:

     Ya meldatesh por seguro en las gazetas ke el governo esta aparejando una ley grasias a la kuala no va aver mas estos terribles "bekchis" vinidos espesilamente de Anadol i los kualos kon sus espavoresientes sopas azian tanto espantar a todos akeyos ke tienen el koraje de durmir repozados en sus lechos.

     Now you certainly read in the papers that the government is preparing a law thanks to whoever is no longer having more [of] these terrible ‘guards’, especially from Anadol, coming with their frightening clubs, terrifying everybody who has the courage the sleep soundly in bed.

Middle English

Etymology

From Old English lēah, lēaġe (“a clearing in the woods”).

Noun

ley (plural leys)

1. an open field or meadow

Descendants

• English: ley, lea

Old Galician-Portuguese

Alternative forms

• lee, lei, leij

Etymology

Inherited from Latin lēgem (whence English legal and legitimate), from Proto-Italic *lēg-, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-s, from *leǵ- (“to gather”).

Noun

ley f

1. (law) law
2. (religion) commandment; law
3. (religion) religion; faith

Descendants

• Galician: lei
• Portuguese: lei

References

• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “ley”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “ley”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

Old Occitan

Etymology

Inherited from Latin lēgem, accusative of lēx. Compare Old French lei, loi.

Noun

ley f (oblique plural leys, nominative singular ley, nominative plural leys)

1. law

Descendants

• Occitan: lei

Old Spanish

Etymology

Inherited from Latin lēgem (whence English legal and legitimate), from Proto-Italic *lēg-, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-s, from *leǵ- (“to gather”).

Noun

ley f

1. (law) law
2. (religion) commandment; law
   • c. 1200, Almerich, Fazienda de Ultramar, f. 76r.:

     […] ⁊ uinierõ ⁊ fraguarõ la caſa ⁊ fizierõ ẏ altar. ⁊ ofreçierõ ſo olocauſt. como es eſc̃pto en la ley demoẏſen. uarõ de dios

     And they came and set the house and made an altar there. And they offered their burnt offering according to what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God.

Descendants

• Ladino: ley, ליי
• Spanish: ley

References

• Ralph Steele Boggs et al. (1946) “ley”, in Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, volume II, Chapel Hill, page 304

Portuguese

Noun

ley f (plural leys)

1. Obsolete spelling of lei.

Spanish

Etymology

Inherited from Old Spanish ley, from Latin lēgem (whence English legal and legitimate), from Proto-Italic *lēg-, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-s, from *leǵ- (“to gather”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlei/ [ˈlei̯]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ei
• Syllabification: ley

Noun

ley f (plural leyes)

1. law (a well-established characteristic of nature)
2. law (body of rules issued by a legislative body)
3. (law) law (particular piece of legislation)
4. (religion) religion; credence; worship of a god

Hyponyms

• ley del buen samaritano
• ley natural (“natural law”)

Derived terms

• a la ley
• con todas las de la ley
• costumbre fuera de ley
• de buena ley
• de ley
• de mala ley
• decreto ley
• fuera de la ley
• generales de la ley
• hecha la ley, hecha la trampa
• imperio de la ley
• ley de atracción
• ley de bases
• ley de Coulomb
• ley de Dios
• ley de enjuiciamiento
• ley de Hooke
• ley de la selva
• ley de la trampa
• ley de la ventaja
• ley de los grandes números
• ley de Moisés
• ley de Murphy
• ley de Ohm
• ley de vida
• ley del embudo
• ley del hielo
• ley del silencio
• ley fundamental
• ley marcial
• ley natural
• ley orgánica
• ley seca
• ley universal
• proposición de ley
• proposición no de ley
• proyecto de ley
• proyecto de ley (“bill, draft law”)
• quebrar la ley, quebrantar la ley (“to break the law”)
• reserva de ley
• tablas de la ley

Related terms

• leal
• legal
• legislar
• legítimo
• lindo

Further reading

• “ley”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10