lacedvsleavedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“laced” and “leaved” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,882
“laced” frequency rank
#41,731
“leaved” frequency rank
61613
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laced leaved
Definition Fastened with lace or laces (light cordage). Having a leaf, leaves or folds.

Where the eye mixes laced and leaved

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. laced runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against leaved's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
laced
6 ch
leaved

Look-alike desk: laced vs leaved

A purely visual mix-up. laced (/leɪst/) and leaved (/liːvd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61613, 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/. leaved is at rank #41,731, tagged as anadj, pronounced /liːvd/.

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 61613, this pair ranks #93,247 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laced vs leaved

Shared letters: adel. Private to "laced": c. Private to "leaved": v.

"laced" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "leaved" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laced ← alced · lacced · lacde · lacedd · laecd · lcaed · llaced
  • leaved ← elaved · laeved · leaevd · leavde · leavedd · leavved · levaed · lleaved

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "laced" and "leaved" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/leɪst/ versus /liːvd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "laced" or "leaved"?
"laced" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,882 in our English list, against #41,731 for "leaved". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "laced" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leaved" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,247 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laced" and "leaved" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laver vs leaved". 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 #93,247 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list