Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The introductory portion of a news story, especially the first sentence.
from The Century Dictionary.
- A Middle English form of
lead . - A Middle English form of
lead . - noun A man; in the plural, men; people.
- noun plural Tenements; holdings; possessions.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun singular A
man ;person . - noun Scotland
Men ;people ,folk . - noun Scotland, singular A
people ornation . - noun plural
Tenements ;holdings ;possessions . - noun US, journalism The
introductory paragraph(s) of anewspaper or other newsarticle .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the introductory section of a story
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Undoubtedly a moving and important story (I'll definitely check it out), but ... the lede is a little treacly, don't you think?
The Reason Newspapers Must Never Die - Swampland - TIME.com 2008
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Therefore, the lede is not an exaggeration, but a reminder.
Matthew Yglesias » Kathryn Jean-Lopez and Rush Limbaugh Are Not Very Intelligent 2010
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The lede is a girls basketball team, but the lessons are larger: Davids win all the time.
Substituting Effort for Ability matociquala 2009
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The lede is that Grover puts forward a hypothetical in which it is assumed that the GOP can come up with ten good ideas, and also that teh Democrats would reject any such good ideas out of hand.
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It's a nice article, but the lede is slightly off-base.
Home opener, Wall-Turner matchup near Michael Lee 2010
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Therefore, the lede is not an exaggeration, but a reminder.
Matthew Yglesias » Kathryn Jean-Lopez and Rush Limbaugh Are Not Very Intelligent 2010
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In the news journalism industry, particularly in the US, the particular news-style of lead used is sometimes referred to as a lede.
Elizabeth Boleman-Herring: Still Seeking 'The Ineffable' in 2012 Elizabeth Boleman-Herring 2012
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"Superdelegates Give Themselves Wiggle Room on Clinton-Obama" (Mike Soraghan, The Hill) Reporter Soraghan's lede is good: "As the fight over superdelegates gets harder, some of the superdelegate endorsements are getting softer."
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The lede is particularly sparkling: Brünnhilde made a guest appearance Friday night in the middle of J.S. Bach's joyous Cantata No. 51 ( "Jauchzet Gott!"), a piece usually sung by lyric sopranos of the Kathleen Battle mold.
How it's done Matthew Guerrieri 2006
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The lede is particularly sparkling: Brünnhilde made a guest appearance Friday night in the middle of J.S. Bach's joyous Cantata No. 51 ( "Jauchzet Gott!"), a piece usually sung by lyric sopranos of the Kathleen Battle mold.
Archive 2006-10-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2006
tbtabby commented on the word lede
Usually used in the context of newspaper articles, for the first sentence which sums up the topic of the article. There are some very strange ledes out there. Here's one from MSNBC: "A carpenter who keeps his clothes clean by working in the nude was arrested after a client returned home early and found him building bookcases in the buff."
March 28, 2009
swordnik commented on the word lede
It's interesting that 'lede' doesn't appear under the sense of 'lead' or 'intro' in the Century or OED. Wikipedia says it's journo-jargon, ostensibly used to differentiate itself from 'lead' or 'leading', the typographical property:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_style#Lead_or_intro
It's also not a valid Scrabble word under TWL or SOWPODS.
January 18, 2010