leaf vs ply

leaf

noun
  • A sheet of any substance beaten or rolled until very thin. 

  • Anything resembling the leaf of a plant. 

  • A flat section used to extend the size of a table. 

  • One of the teeth of a pinion, especially when small. 

  • The layer of fat supporting the kidneys of a pig, leaf fat. 

  • A Canadian person. 

  • The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants. 

  • A moveable panel, e.g. of a bridge or door, originally one that hinged but now also applied to other forms of movement. 

  • A foliage leaf or any of the many and often considerably different structures it can specialise into. 

  • A sheet of a book, magazine, etc (consisting of two pages, one on each face of the leaf). 

  • Tea leaves. 

  • In a tree, a node that has no descendants. 

  • Cannabis. 

verb
  • To divide (a vegetable) into separate leaves. 

  • To produce leaves; put forth foliage. 

ply

noun
  • A layer of material. 

  • In two-player sequential games, a "half-turn" or a move made by one of the players. 

  • A bent; a direction. 

  • A strand that, twisted together with other strands, makes up rope or yarn. 

  • A condition, a state. 

verb
  • To work at (something) diligently. 

  • To press upon; to urge persistently. 

  • To persist in offering something to, especially for the purpose of inducement or persuasion. 

  • To travel over (a route) regularly. 

  • To bend, to flex; to be bent by something, to give way or yield (to a force, etc.). 

  • To wield or use (a tool, a weapon, etc.) steadily or vigorously. 

How often have the words leaf and ply occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )