1
: coming or ranking first : foremost
2
: exercising leadership
3
: providing direction or guidance
a leading question
4
: given most prominent display
the leading story
plural leadings
1
: a covering or framework of lead
repaired the leading in the church's stained glass windows
2
typography
: the distance between a pair of adjacent lines in composed text
increased the leading after the header
a leading of 6 points
Examples of leading in a Sentence
Adjective
a leading topic of conversation
Their family played a leading part in the settlement of the town.
the leading role in a major Hollywood movie
a leading citizen of the town
She's one of the leading authorities on the stock market.
Recent Examples on the Web
Nicole Hoey, Robb Report, 21 Oct. 2025
Their father had been a leading jurist, and Christoph initially wished to follow suit.
—Alex Ross, New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2025
Ben Goggin, NBC news, 20 Oct. 2025
The leading and, at the moment, only candidate is Fraser Minten.
—Steve Conroy, Boston Herald, 8 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for leading
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
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Adjective
Her appointment comes at a time where, amid a flurry of changes among industry leadership, few women have been charged with leading menswear divisions.
—Nicole Hoey, Robb Report, 21 Oct. 2025
Their father had been a leading jurist, and Christoph initially wished to follow suit.
—Alex Ross, New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2025
Noun
Websites and services across the United States and around the world were struggling to recover Monday after a problem at Amazon Web Services (AWS) left leading games, publishers, streaming platforms and other apps unusable to millions of people.
—Ben Goggin, NBC news, 20 Oct. 2025
The leading and, at the moment, only candidate is Fraser Minten.
—Steve Conroy, Boston Herald, 8 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for leading
Cite this Entry
“Leading.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leading. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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