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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

lye.

An alkaline liquid made by leaching ashes (usually wood ashes).

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/laɪ/

  1. An alkaline liquid made by leaching ashes (usually wood ashes).

    countable · uncountable

  2. Potassium or sodium hydroxide (caustic soda).

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English leye, lye, from Old English lēah, lēag (“lye”), from Proto-West Germanic *laugu, from Proto-Germanic *laugō, from Proto-Indo-European *lewh₃- (“to wash”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Loge, Looie (“lye”), Dutch loog (“lye”), German Low German Loge, Loje, Loog (“lye”), German Lauge (“lye”). Compare typologically Ancient Greek ῥύμμα (rhúmma) < ῥύπτω (rhúptō, “to cleanse, to wash”); Russian м́ыло (ḿylo) (a nomen instrumenti of мыть (mytʹ)).

verb/laɪ/

  1. To treat with lye.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English leye, lye, from Old English lēah, lēag (“lye”), from Proto-West Germanic *laugu, from Proto-Germanic *laugō, from Proto-Indo-European *lewh₃- (“to wash”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Loge, Looie (“lye”), Dutch loog (“lye”), German Low German Loge, Loje, Loog (“lye”), German Lauge (“lye”). Compare typologically Ancient Greek ῥύμμα (rhúmma) < ῥύπτω (rhúptō, “to cleanse, to wash”); Russian м́ыло (ḿylo) (a nomen instrumenti of мыть (mytʹ)).

noun/laɪ/

  1. Obsolete spelling of lie.

    alt-of · obsolete

  2. A short side line, connected with the main line; a turn-out; a siding.

    UK
Where this word comes from

Variant of lie (“to rest horizontally”) now used in a specialised sense; compare sett.

verb/laɪ/

  1. Obsolete spelling of lie.

    alt-of · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Variant of lie (“to rest horizontally”) now used in a specialised sense; compare sett.

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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.