Meaning & use
leisure
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
Time when you are free from work or duties and can do what you enjoy.
Grammar: No plural and no a: she has little leisure, not a leisure.
Patterns
- in your leisure
- have time for leisure
He saves his leisure for fishing and reading.
Long work hours leave her almost no leisure.
Retirement finally gave them the leisure to travel.
noununcountable
Activities done for fun or relaxation during free time, often as an industry or a topic of planning.
Grammar: Often a modifier in compounds: leisure center, leisure industry.
Patterns
- leisure activities
- leisure facilities
The city built a new leisure complex with a pool and gym.
Sales of leisure clothing rose in spring.
Researchers study how families spend their leisure.
nounidiomformal
A relaxed, unhurried pace with no pressure of time, as in the phrase at your leisure.
Grammar: Appears mainly in at your leisure or at leisure: take it at your leisure means whenever it suits you.
Patterns
- at your leisure
- at leisure
Please read the report at your leisure and reply next week.
The guests strolled through the garden at leisure.
You can pay at your leisure within thirty days.
Common combinations
- leisure time
- In his leisure time he builds model ships.
- leisure activity
- Walking is a popular leisure activity.
- leisure center
- The leisure center offers swimming lessons.
- at your leisure
- Browse the exhibit at your leisure.
- a life of leisure
- He dreamed of a life of leisure on a quiet island.
Synonyms and how they differ
- free time
- Free time is the plain everyday phrase, while leisure sounds a bit more formal or is used in business and planning.
- spare time
- Spare time suggests the small gaps left over after duties, whereas leisure suggests time that belongs to rest and enjoyment.
- relaxation
- Relaxation names the calm, restful feeling or activity itself, not just the time available for it.
- recreation
- Recreation focuses on the active pastimes you do, such as sports and hobbies, not on the free time.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: leisure or pleasure?
leisure vs pleasure
Pleasure is the feeling of enjoyment, while leisure is free time; the two look and sound partly alike, but they are not interchangeable.
Practice
A manager says, 'Read the contract at your leisure.' What does she mean?
Choose one answer.
At your leisure means when it is convenient for you and without pressure. Reading it at once is the opposite, and the other options add conditions that the phrase does not carry.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “leisure”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.