One of the challenges faced by English learners of Dutch is the negotiation of apparent lexical gaps between the two languages. Lexemes that disrupt the common linguistic pattern can be highly revealing of a community’s lingua-culture. By carefully exploring the combinations in which the words are used, their specific meanings can be explicated and better understood. This ethnolexicological study adopts the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to analyse the semantics of the Dutch adjective/adverb leuk, based on the Dutch Web Corpus (nlTenTen). Its findings show that leuk has various divergent meanings unique to the Dutch speech community and that it is most productive within the domain of activities and experiences. A brief comparison with its Belgian Dutch counterpart plezant reveals that, in Flemish, the quality is mainly attributed to periods of time. As a cultural keyword, leuk may be linked to salient Dutch values such as honesty, directness and egalitarianism, whereas plezant reflects the Belgian cultural value of gemoedelijkheid (cosiness). It is concluded that grasping the sometimes opaque meanings of leuk may be helpful for learners new to the Dutch language when aiming to adapt to local discursive practices.