• IPA^(key): /liːɡ/

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• Rhymes: -iːɡ

From Middle English liege, ligg, lige (“a pact between governments, an agreement, alliance”), from Middle French ligue, from Italian lega, from the verb legare, from Latin ligō (“to tie”).

league (countable and uncountable, plural leagues)

1. A group or association of cooperating members.

   the League of Nations

   • 1668, John Denham, The Passion of Dido for Aeneas:

     And let there be / 'Twixt us and them no league, nor amity.

2. (sports) An organization of sports teams which play against one another for a championship.

   My favorite sports organizations are the National Football League and the American League in baseball.

   He loved watching cricket leagues all around the world.

3. (informal, rugby, uncountable) Ellipsis of rugby league.

   Are you going to watch the league tonight?

4. (chiefly in the negative) A class or type of people or things that are evenly matched or on the same level.

   Forget about dating him; he's out of your league.

   We're not even in the same league.

5. A prefecture-level administrative unit in Inner Mongolia (Chinese: 盟).
6. (military) An alliance or coalition.

• ally
• alliance

• → Japanese: リーグ (rīgu)
• → Korean: 리그 (rigeu)

league (third-person singular simple present leagues, present participle leaguing, simple past and past participle leagued)

1. (ambitransitive) To form an association; to unite in a league or confederacy; to combine for mutual support.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost.[…], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker[…]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter[…]; [a]nd Matthias Walker,[…], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books:[…], London: Basil Montagu Pickering[…], 1873, →OCLC:

     Out of my sight, thou Serpent, that name best Befits thee with him leagu'd.

   • 1845, Bentley's Miscellany, volume 18, page 7:

     I believe that all the Bohemians and the great folks in Paris are so leagued together, that they are afraid of one another, and the people receive all the buffets of their disagreeings.

league (not comparable)

1. (British, soccer) Playing in the The Football League or the Premier League, the top four divisions of English football

• non-league

From Middle English lege (“league”), from Late Latin leuca, leuga (“the Gaulish mile”), from Gaulish,^[1] from Proto-Celtic *lougā (compare Middle Breton leau, lew, Breton lev / leo (“league”)).^[2] Doublet of legua.

league (plural leagues)

1. (measurement) The distance that a person can walk in one hour, commonly taken to be approximately three English miles (about five kilometers).
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book X, Chapter 10:

     Thenne kynge Mark and sir Dynadan rode forth a four leges englysshe tyl that they came to a brydge where houed a knyght on horsbak armed and redy to Iuste.
     "Then King Mark and Sir Dinadan rode forth a four leagues English, till that they came to a bridge where hoved a knight on horseback, armed and ready to joust."

   • 1751-1753, Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, History of Louisiana (PG), p. 47

     Seven leagues above the mouth of the river we meet with two other passes, as large as the middle one by which we entered.

   • 1813, James Burney, A Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean‎^[2], volume 3, London: Luke Hansard and Sons, page 257:

     To this time the Dutch had kept two garrisons in the North of Formosa, one of which was at Fort Kelang, taken from the Spaniards ; the other was at a place called Tamsui, about ten leagues to the westward of Kelang.

   • 1855, Alfred Tennyson, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon,[…], →OCLC, stanza 1, page 151:

     Half a league, half a league, / Half a league onward, / All in the valley of Death / Rode the six hundred.

   • 2008, Christopher Paolini, “Rider and Ra'zac”, in Brisingr, page 70:

     Above him, the sun gleamed gold and white. Before him, trackless wilderness extended for many leagues before lapping against the outbuildings of some village.

2. A stone erected near a public road to mark the distance of a league.

• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “league”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• Middle English Dictionary, lege