Which to use
“laced” is an adjective and “leaped” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,882
- “laced” frequency rank
- #38,472
- “leaped” frequency rank
- 58354
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | laced | leaped |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fastened with lace or laces (light cordage). | simple past and past participle of leap |
Where the eye mixes laced and leaped
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between laced and leaped
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: laced is /leɪst/ while leaped is /liːpt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58354, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
laced is recorded at frequency rank #19,882, classified as anadj, pronounced /leɪst/. leaped is at rank #38,472, tagged as averb, pronounced /liːpt/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 58354, this pair ranks #113,116 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of laced vs leaped
Shared letters: adel. Private to "laced": c. Private to "leaped": p.
"laced" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "leaped" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "laced" for "leaped" ever safe?
Which is more common, "laced" or "leaped"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "laced" and "leaped" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "laced" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leaped" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #113,116 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "laced" and "leaped" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leaker vs leaped". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #113,116 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.