Meaning & use
page leaf
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Meanings
nouncountabletechnical
A single sheet of paper in a book, with one page on the front and one on the back.
Grammar: Countable: use 'a page leaf' for one and 'page leaves' for more than one.
Patterns
- a page leaf of a book
- turn a page leaf
- a torn page leaf
The restorer removed each page leaf and cleaned it by hand.
A single page leaf had come loose from the old atlas.
Count the page leaves before you sew the book back together.
nouncountabletechnical
One side of such a sheet, considered as a unit of content in a printed work.
Grammar: Often used when talking about layout or pagination rather than the physical paper.
Patterns
- on the facing page leaf
- the left page leaf
- number the page leaves
The illustration sits on the facing page leaf.
Each page leaf carries a running head at the top.
The editor marked the page leaves where new chapters begin.
Word forms
| plural | page leaves |
|---|
Common combinations
- a loose page leaf
- A loose page leaf fell out when she opened the volume.
- the facing page leaf
- The translation is printed on the facing page leaf.
- a torn page leaf
- The archivist repaired a torn page leaf with thin tissue.
- remove a page leaf
- You must remove a page leaf before rebinding the book.
- number the page leaves
- The apprentice had to number the page leaves by hand.
Synonyms and how they differ
- leaf
- Shorter and more general; it can mean a sheet in a book or a leaf on a plant, so it is vaguer than 'page leaf.'
- sheet
- Refers to a whole piece of paper, which may or may not be part of a book, so it fits better for loose paper.
- folio
- A technical word for a large sheet or a numbered leaf, common in rare-book cataloguing.
Word family
Commonly confused: page leaf or page? page leaf or leaflet?
page leaf vs page
'Page' usually means one side of a sheet, while a 'page leaf' is the whole physical sheet with two sides.
page leaf vs leaflet
A leaflet is a small separate printed sheet given out for information, not part of a bound book.
Practice
Which sentence uses "page leaf" correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Page leaf' is a technical term for a sheet in a bound book, so the binder example fits. The gardener example confuses it with the leaves of a plant, and the notebook and newspaper examples describe ordinary loose pages, where 'page' or 'sheet' is the natural word.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “page leaf”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.