How to Use leading light in a Sentence

leading light

noun
  • He is one of the leading lights of the labor movement.
  • Some of the field’s leading lights have spent much of last year grappling with these issues.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 7 Jan. 2015
  • Lisa Jackson was the leading light in the field, Vitale said.
    — Cassie Werber, Quartz at Work, 12 Dec. 2019
  • The current leading lights in rock are largely admired for their raw earnestness.
    — Armin Rosen, The Washington Examiner, 9 Jan. 2026
  • But why didn’t these leading lights raise the alarm about Weinstein sooner?
    — Madeleine Kearns, National Review, 3 Mar. 2020
  • Miliband recruited a number of its leading lights to work directly for him.
    — David Runciman, Foreign Affairs, 22 July 2013
  • But anything can be achieved with a clear vision driven by a leading light, a flame that embraces a core purpose.
    — Chris Gallagher, USA TODAY, 17 Aug. 2024
  • Lieberman rejects the idea of statehood, as do most of the leading lights within the Likud.
    — Gregg Carlstrom, Newsweek, 15 Mar. 2018
  • The 20-year-old is now in great form and is the leading light for the US at this year’s grand slam.
    — Ben Church, CNN, 13 Jan. 2025
  • New Zealand has become a leading light in the struggle against the forces of hate and fear that threaten to pull our world apart.
    — Patrick Brzeski, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Aug. 2019
  • To this point, the Democrats’ leading lights have shown little deference to Schultz’s faction.
    — Eric Levitz, Daily Intelligencer, 6 June 2018
  • But behind the showman’s bravado is a connoisseur of design’s leading lights.
    — Erik Maza, Town & Country, 26 Mar. 2019
  • In its earliest incarnation, the group was a leading light of the English blues scene.
    — NBC News, 10 June 2018
  • Olympus, once a leading light in the photography industry, is now joining that list.
    — Robert Hackett, Fortune, 24 June 2020
  • City has been a leading light over the past decade, with six championships since 2012, including four of the past five.
    — Tariq Panja, New York Times, 6 Feb. 2023
  • Stranahan, an early proponent of the category, is one of its leading lights.
    — Joseph V Micallef, Forbes, 26 Dec. 2024
  • Yes, the emerging dispensation has room for a few Rogan-level leading lights.
    — Ross Douthat, The Mercury News, 16 Oct. 2024
  • Many leading lights of midcentury modernism were involved in the project as design consultants or artists.
    — Ellen Piligian, Detroit Free Press, 19 Jan. 2020
  • Iliman Ndiaye is one of the squad’s leading lights but is likely to attract interest from top clubs this summer.
    — Patrick Boyland, New York Times, 25 May 2026
  • That Flynn — never considered one of the body’s leading lights — now seems its sage statesman is a testament to just how far the council has sunk.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 15 July 2023
  • The younger generation includes several leading lights who challenge the idea that the Tory party is a white one.
    — The Economist, 7 Oct. 2017
  • Newspapers emblazon the faces of and headlines about the leading lights all over the front pages, and deliver blanket coverage in the sports sections at the back.
    — Martin Rogers, USA TODAY, 7 July 2018
  • Until fairly recently, the leading lights of Europe and America would have agreed.
    — Rebecca Burgess and, WSJ, 1 Sep. 2017
  • Major awards went to titles, often produced by women who are leading lights of a new generation of filmmakers in the continent.
    — Marta Balaga, Variety, 15 Aug. 2025
  • Some of the planet's most accomplished modders, backed by the leading lights in PC components, use the massive trade show to parade their best work.
    — John Burek, PCMAG, 5 June 2023
  • For decades, Penn has been a leading light in the saltwater reel market, making ultra-durable products to combat the most damage that fish and the elements can dish out.
    — Pete Robins, Field & Stream, 3 May 2023
  • The five-piece is a leading light in the wave of young regional Mexican music to blow up TikTok and the Billboard charts.
    — August Brown, Los Angeles Times, 12 Nov. 2023
  • Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the movement’s leading lights, was famous for denouncing his colleagues’ work in vivid and personal terms.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 10 May 2023
  • The conference featured leading lights from academia, policymaking, and business.
    — Literary Hub, 13 May 2026
  • In the midst, Isak is vying to become the leading light for Sweden alongside another sensation in Gyøkeres.
    — Henry Flynn, Forbes, 8 Jan. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'leading light.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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