Meaning & use
leaflet
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A small printed sheet or folded paper handed out to give information or advertise something.
Grammar: Countable: a leaflet, three leaflets.
Patterns
- a leaflet about something
- hand out a leaflet
A volunteer gave me a leaflet about the free vaccination clinic.
The dentist keeps a stack of leaflets on the reception desk.
She slid the leaflet under every door on the street.
nouncountablebiology
One of the small blade-like parts that make up a compound leaf.
Grammar: Botany sense: a rose leaf has several leaflets.
Patterns
- leaflets of a leaf
Each ash leaf is made up of several narrow leaflets.
The clover has three rounded leaflets on every stalk.
The teacher asked us to count the leaflets on the fern.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To hand out leaflets to people in an area or crowd.
Grammar: Takes an object when naming the place: leaflet the town; or none: they leafleted all afternoon.
Patterns
- leaflet an area
Volunteers will leaflet the neighborhood before the vote.
We leafleted outside the station every morning.
The campaign leafleted over two thousand homes.
Word forms
| plural | leaflets |
|---|---|
| third person singular | leaflets |
| past tense | leafleted |
| past participle | leafleted |
| -ing form | leafleting |
Common combinations
- hand out a leaflet
- She stood on the corner to hand out a leaflet.
- information leaflet
- The information leaflet explains how to use the machine.
- leaflet drop
- The group planned a leaflet drop across town.
- folded leaflet
- He pulled a folded leaflet from his pocket.
- leaflet campaign
- The charity ran a leaflet campaign last spring.
Synonyms and how they differ
- flyer
- Flyer is the more American word and usually means a single advertising sheet, whereas leaflet can also be a folded information sheet.
- brochure
- A brochure is bigger and glossier, often several pages, while a leaflet is shorter and cheaper.
- pamphlet
- A pamphlet is longer and often argues a case or explains a subject in depth, while a leaflet is brief.
Word family
- leaf noun
- the base word, a flat green plant part or a sheet of paper
- leafleting noun
- the act of handing out leaflets
- leafleter noun
- a person who distributes leaflets
Commonly confused: leaflet or booklet?
leaflet vs booklet
A booklet is a small bound book with several pages; a leaflet is usually one sheet or one folded sheet.
Practice
Volunteers will ___ the whole neighborhood before the election.
Choose one answer.
Only leaflet works as a verb meaning to distribute leaflets. The other options are nouns here, so they cannot follow 'will'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “leaflet”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.