Legged describes having legs, usually with a number in front to specify how many. A three-legged stool has three legs supporting it. A four-legged animal like a dog or cat walks on four legs. Spiders are eight-legged creatures, while insects are six-legged.

The word becomes especially useful when you need to describe exactly how many legs something has. You might tell someone about the three-legged race at field day, where pairs of students tie one leg to the other person’s and try to run as a team. A wobbly table might need one of its four legs fixed to stand straight again.

Sometimes people use legged to describe how something moves or looks. A long-legged heron wades through shallow water on its tall, thin legs. A short-legged dachshund has a body that sits close to the ground.

The word can even apply to journeys split into parts: a two-legged flight means you'll land at one airport, change planes, then fly to your final destination. Each separate flight is one leg of the trip, so the whole journey is two-legged.