leak.
A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.
Meaning & usage
A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.
The entrance or escape of a fluid through a crack, fissure, or other aperture.
The leak gained on the ship's pumps.
The babies' diapers had big leaks.
A divulgation, or disclosure, of information previously held secret.
The leaks by Chelsea Manning showed the secrets of the US military.
The person through whom such divulgation, or disclosure, occurs.
A loss of electricity through imperfect insulation, or the point where it occurs.
The gradual loss of a system resource caused by failure to deallocate previously reserved portions.
An act of urination.
I have to take a leak.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English leken (“to let water in or out”), from Old English *lecan (“to leak”), Middle Dutch leken (“to leak, drip”) or Old Norse leka (“to leak, drip”); all from Proto-Germanic *lekaną (“to leak, drain”), from Proto-Indo-European *leg- (“to leak”). Cognate with Dutch lekken (“to leak”), German lechen, lecken (“to leak”), Danish lække (“to leak”), Swedish läcka (“to leak”), Norwegian Bokmål lekke (“to leak”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian Nynorsk leka (“to leak”). Related also to Old English leċċan (“to water, wet”), Albanian lag, lak (“to damp, make wet”). See also leach, lake. (divulgation, disclosure of information): Compare typologically Bulgarian изтичане (iztičane), Polish przeciek, Russian уте́чка (utéčka) (akin to течь impf or f (tečʹ)).
To allow fluid or gas to pass through an opening that should be sealed.
The wells are believed to have been leaking oil for decades, long after the operating company ceased to exist.
(of a fluid or gas) To pass through an opening that should be sealed.
The faucet has been leaking since last month.
No one realized that propane gas was leaking from a rusty tank in the concession area, slowly filling the unventilated room.
To disclose secret information surreptitiously or anonymously.
Someone must have leaked it to our competitors that the new product will be out soon.
To pass through when it would normally or preferably be blocked.
To allow anything through that would normally or preferably be blocked.
To emit bodily fluids: To urinate.
I had to leak in the woods since there were no toilets around.
To emit bodily fluids: To bleed.
He shanked him, now he's leaking.
To emit bodily fluids: To ejaculate.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English leken (“to let water in or out”), from Old English *lecan (“to leak”), Middle Dutch leken (“to leak, drip”) or Old Norse leka (“to leak, drip”); all from Proto-Germanic *lekaną (“to leak, drain”), from Proto-Indo-European *leg- (“to leak”). Cognate with Dutch lekken (“to leak”), German lechen, lecken (“to leak”), Danish lække (“to leak”), Swedish läcka (“to leak”), Norwegian Bokmål lekke (“to leak”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian Nynorsk leka (“to leak”). Related also to Old English leċċan (“to water, wet”), Albanian lag, lak (“to damp, make wet”). See also leach, lake. (divulgation, disclosure of information): Compare typologically Bulgarian изтичане (iztičane), Polish przeciek, Russian уте́чка (utéčka) (akin to течь impf or f (tečʹ)).
Leaky.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English leken (“to let water in or out”), from Old English *lecan (“to leak”), Middle Dutch leken (“to leak, drip”) or Old Norse leka (“to leak, drip”); all from Proto-Germanic *lekaną (“to leak, drain”), from Proto-Indo-European *leg- (“to leak”). Cognate with Dutch lekken (“to leak”), German lechen, lecken (“to leak”), Danish lække (“to leak”), Swedish läcka (“to leak”), Norwegian Bokmål lekke (“to leak”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian Nynorsk leka (“to leak”). Related also to Old English leċċan (“to water, wet”), Albanian lag, lak (“to damp, make wet”). See also leach, lake. (divulgation, disclosure of information): Compare typologically Bulgarian изтичане (iztičane), Polish przeciek, Russian уте́чка (utéčka) (akin to течь impf or f (tečʹ)).
Try it on your idea.
leak has 4 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.