Leaderless

[lee-der] /ˈli dər/

noun
1.
a person or thing that leads.
2.
a guiding or directing head, as of an army, movement, or political group.
3.
Music.

4.
a featured article of trade, especially one offered at a low price to attract customers.
Compare .
5.
Journalism.

6.
blank film or tape at the beginning of a length of film or magnetic tape, used for threading a motion-picture camera, tape recorder, etc.
Compare (def 6).
7.
Angling.

8.
a pipe for conveying rain water downward, as from a roof; downspout.
9.
a horse harnessed at the front of a team.
10.
leaders, Printing. a row of dots or a short line to lead the eye across a space.
11.
Nautical. 1 (def 40b).
12.
a duct for conveying warm air from a hot-air furnace to a register or stack.
13.
Mining. a thin vein of ore connected with a large vein.
/ˈliːdə/
noun
1.
a person who rules, guides, or inspires others; head
2.
(music)

3.

4.
(mainly US & Canadian) an article offered at a sufficiently low price to attract customers See also loss leader
5.
a statistic or index that gives an advance indication of the state of the economy
6.
(mainly Brit) Also called leading article. the leading editorial in a newspaper
7.
(angling) another word for trace2 (sense 2), cast (sense 32a)
8.
(nautical) another term for fairlead
9.
a strip of blank film or tape used to facilitate threading a projector, developing machine, etc, and to aid identification
10.
(pl) (printing) rows of dots or hyphens used to guide the reader’s eye across a page, as in a table of contents
11.
(botany) any of the long slender shoots that grow from the stem or branch of a tree: usually removed during pruning
12.
(Brit) a member of the Government having primary authority in initiating legislative business (esp in the phrases Leader of the House of Commons and Leader of the House of Lords)
13.
the senior barrister, usually a Queen’s Counsel, in charge of the conduct of a case Compare junior (sense 6)
adj.

1590s, from leader (n.1) + -less. Related: Leaderlessly; leaderlessness.
n.

Old English lædere “one who leads,” agent noun from lædan (see lead (v.)). As a title for the head of an authoritarian state, from 1918 (translating führer, Duce, caudillo, etc.). Meaning “writing or statement meant to begin a discussion or debate” is late 13c.; in modern use often short for leading article (1807) “opinion piece in a British newspaper” (leader in this sense attested from 1837).