Meaning & use
lease
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Meanings
nouncountablelegalbusiness
A legal contract that lets someone use land, a building, a car or equipment for a fixed time in return for payment.
Grammar: Say “a lease” or “the lease”; compare “rent,” which can be the payment or the arrangement in everyday speech.
Patterns
- sign a lease
- under a lease
- lease on something
Before moving in, we read the whole lease carefully.
The shop has a five-year lease on the corner unit.
Her lease ends in June, so she is looking for a new flat.
verbtransitive or intransitivelegalbusiness
To give or obtain the use of property or equipment under a lease.
Grammar: Use “lease something” for the object; the subject may be the owner or the user, unlike “rent,” which often focuses on paying to use.
Patterns
- lease something to someone
- lease something from someone
- lease office space
The company leases its warehouse from the port authority.
They lease cars to drivers for six months at a time.
We leased a small studio near the station.
Word forms
| third person singular | leases |
|---|---|
| past tense | leased |
| past participle | leased |
| -ing form | leasing |
| plural | leases |
Common combinations
- sign a lease
- They signed the lease after checking the repair clause.
- renew a lease
- We want to renew the lease rather than move.
- lease agreement
- The lease agreement lists which repairs the tenant must pay for.
- lease office space
- The startup leases office space in the old mill.
- break a lease
- Breaking a lease early can cost several months’ rent.
Synonyms and how they differ
- rental agreement
- More everyday and sometimes shorter; a lease often sounds more formal and fixed-term.
- tenancy
- Common for the right to occupy housing; “lease” is broader and can cover cars, machines and commercial space too.
- charter
- Used mainly for hiring vehicles, boats or aircraft, not ordinary flats or offices.
Opposites
Word family
- leasehold noun
- Ownership or use of property for the period of a lease.
- leaseholder noun
- A person or company holding a lease.
- lessor noun
- The owner who grants a lease.
- lessee noun
- The person or company that takes a lease.
Commonly confused: lease or least? lease or rent?
lease vs least
“Lease” means a rental contract; “least” means smallest amount. They sound different in careful speech but are sometimes misspelled.
lease vs rent
“Rent” often names the money paid or a simple monthly arrangement; “lease” emphasizes the contract and fixed term.
Practice
Which sentence uses “lease” correctly as a verb?
Choose one answer.
The subject “the firm” grants use of trucks under a contract, matching “leases something to someone”; “pay a lease” is unnatural, and owning walls contradicts leasing.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lease”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.