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
Glenn Adamson, Artforum, 1 June 2025
Shue returned to acting in the 2010s and has had leading roles on several shows — including Super Pumped, On the Verge, The Boys and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation — as well as in films such as Battle of the Sexes (2019), Greyhound (2020) and The Good Half (2023).
—Keith Langston, People.com, 1 June 2025
Bobby Narang, Chicago Tribune, 15 May 2025
Prioritizing Standardization: Embrace leading practices and standard processes across entities to prepare for a clean core and reduce customization needs.
—Rahul Bhatia, Forbes.com, 5 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for leading
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Adjective
This was bricolage in the mode of postmodernism, to use a term that Jencks had a leading role in propagating, defining it in multiple competing and overlapping (some would say maddening) ways.
—Glenn Adamson, Artforum, 1 June 2025
Shue returned to acting in the 2010s and has had leading roles on several shows — including Super Pumped, On the Verge, The Boys and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation — as well as in films such as Battle of the Sexes (2019), Greyhound (2020) and The Good Half (2023).
—Keith Langston, People.com, 1 June 2025
Noun
In her third varsity season, Higham is the Wildcats’ ace and leading hitter.
—Bobby Narang, Chicago Tribune, 15 May 2025
Prioritizing Standardization: Embrace leading practices and standard processes across entities to prepare for a clean core and reduce customization needs.
—Rahul Bhatia, Forbes.com, 5 May 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 4 Jun. 2025.
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