ladenvsleadedTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,571
“laden” frequency rank
#44,898
“leaded” frequency rank
55469
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laden leaded
Definition Weighed down with a load, burdened. Held in place by strips of lead.

Where the eye mixes laden and leaded

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

5 ch
laden
6 ch
leaded

Look-alike desk: laden vs leaded

A purely visual mix-up. laden (/ˈleɪdən/) and leaded (/ˈlɛdɪd/) 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 55469, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laden is recorded at frequency rank #10,571, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈleɪdən/. leaded is at rank #44,898, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈlɛdɪd/.

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 55469, this pair ranks #133,403 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laden vs leaded

Shared letters: adel. Private to "laden": n. Private to "leaded": -.

"laden" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "leaded" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laden ← ladden · ladenn · ladne · laedn · ldaen · lladen
  • leaded ← eladed · laeded · leadde · leadded · leadedd · leaedd · ledaed · lleaded

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "laden" and "leaded" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈleɪdən/ versus /ˈlɛdɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "laden" vs "leaded" - which ranks higher?
"laden" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,571 in our English list, against #44,898 for "leaded". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "laden" and "leaded" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "laden" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leaded" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #133,403 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laden" and "leaded" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leaded vs leaker". 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 #133,403 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