leading light

A person who is well-respected and viewed as important to a group. As a leading light of the human rights organization, he helped improve working conditions for millions of people around the world.

leading light

An important or influential individual, as in Jim was a leading light in his community. This expression, alluding to moral guidance, dates from about 1870, but terms such as a shining light have been used for an outstanding person since the first half of the 1500s.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Sienna	see-EN-ə	English (Modern)
Martin	MAHR-tən (English), mar-TEN (French), MAHR-teen (German, Finnish), MAHR-tin (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish), MAWR-teen (Hungarian), mahr-TIN (Bulgarian)	English, French, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Russian, Romanian, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Croa
Apoorva	-	Indian, Hindi, Marathi
Mehtap	-	Turkish
Luciano	loo-CHAH-no (Italian), loo-THYAH-no (Spanish), loo-SYAH-no (Latin American Spanish)	Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Capucine	ka-puy-SEEN	French