ley

Pronunciation

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

Noun

ley (plural leys)

1. Alternative spelling of lea
2. Archaic form of lye.
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: […]

4. (obsolete) law

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Abbott to this entry?)

Adjective

ley (not comparable)

1. (agriculture) fallow; unseeded.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Beaumont and Fletcher to this entry?)

2. (agriculture) Rotated to pasture instead of cropping.

Anagrams

• Ely, lye, yel

Noun

ley (plural leyes)

1. (obsolete) law

Synonyms

• lege

Etymology

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

Noun

ley (plural leys)

1. an open field or meadow

Etymology

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

Noun

ley f (plural leys)

1. Obsolete spelling of lei

Etymology

From Latin lēgem, singular accusative of lēx, from Proto-Italic *lēg-, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-s, from *leǵ- (“to gather”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlei/, [ˈlei̯]

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 (particular piece of legislation)
4. religion, credence, worship of a god

Further reading

• “ley” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.