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lead has 39 distinct synonyms spread across 23 of its 31 senses. Each sense below keeps its own list, because a synonym belongs to a meaning and not to a word: swapping one sense's substitute into another sense's sentence is how a thesaurus makes writing worse. Its one recorded opposite is deficit.
Counts are distinct word forms across every sense. A synonym that appears under three senses is counted once here and shown three times below, under each sense it belongs to.
an advantage held by a competitor in a race
“he took the lead at the last turn”
a soft heavy toxic malleable metallic element; bluish white when freshly cut but tarnishes readily to dull grey
“the children were playing with lead soldiers”
a position of being the initiator of something and an example that others will follow (especially in the phrase `take the lead')
“he takes the lead in any group”
the angle between the direction a gun is aimed and the position of a moving target (correcting for the flight time of the missile)
(baseball) the position taken by a base runner preparing to advance to the next base
“he took a long lead off first”
the timing of ignition relative to the position of the piston in an internal-combustion engine
mixture of graphite with clay in different degrees of hardness; the marking substance in a pencil
a jumper that consists of a short piece of wire
“it was a tangle of jumper cables and clip leads”
the playing of a card to start a trick in bridge
“the lead was in the dummy”
Synonyms, antonyms and the broader and narrower relations for lead come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Full sources and licences.
tend to or result in
“This remark lead to further arguments among the guests”
be conducive to
“The use of computers in the classroom lead to better writing”