From Middle English ledinge, ledynge, ledand, ledande, ledende, from Old English lǣdende, from Proto-West Germanic *laidijandī, from Proto-Germanic *laidijandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *laidijaną, equivalent to .

• (RP) IPA: /ˈliːdɪŋ/
• (America) IPA: /ˈlidɪŋ/

1. Present participle and gerund of lead
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:

     I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town.

leading (not comparable)

1. Providing guidance or direction.

   Avoid leading questions if you really want the truth.

2. Ranking first.

   He is a leading supplier of plumbing supplies in the county.

3. Occurring in advance; preceding.

   Antonyms: following, lagging, trailing

   The stock market can be a leading economic indicator.

• German: führend
• Italian: principale
• Russian: веду́щий
• Spanish: principal

• Italian: principale, primo, maggiore
• Russian: веду́щий

• German: vorangehend, vorausgehend, führend
• Italian: precedente
• Italian: precedente

From Middle English leding, ledyng, ledinge, ledunge, equivalent to .

• (RP) IPA: /ˈliːdɪŋ/
• (America) IPA: /ˈlidɪŋ/

leading (plural leadings)

1. An act by which one is led or guided.
   • 1892, Walt Whitman, “A Song for Occupations”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], →OCLC ↗, stanza 5, page 175 ↗:

     I do not affirm that what you see beyond is futile, I do not advise you to stop, / I do not say leadings you thought great are not great, / But I say that none lead to greater than these lead to.

2. (archaic) Command of an army or military unit.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC ↗; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii ↗:

     Art thou but Captaine of a thouſand horſe,
     That by Characters grauen in thy browes,
     And by thy martiall face and ſtout aſpect,
     Deſeru’ſt to haue the leading of an hoſte?

From Middle English leedynge, equivalent to lead + -ing.

• (RP, America) IPA: /ˈlɛdɪŋ/

leading (uncountable)

1. (typography) Vertical space added between lines; line spacing.

• French: interligne
• German: Zeilenabstand, Interlinea, Zeilendurchschuss, Durchschuss
• Italian: interlinea
• Portuguese: entrelinha, espaçamento entre linhas
• Russian: интерлиньяж
• Spanish: entrelínea