Which to use
“latching” is an adjective and “leaching” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,456
- “latching” frequency rank
- #40,778
- “leaching” frequency rank
- 90234
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | latching | leaching |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | That latches. | present participle and gerund of leach |
Letter map: latching vs leaching
Shared letters muted; letters that set latching and leaching apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.
Part-of-speech tell for latching / leaching
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: latching is anadjective and leachingaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90234, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
latching is recorded at frequency rank #49,456, classified as anadj. leaching is at rank #40,778, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈliːt͡ʃɪŋ/.
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 90234, this pair ranks #4,382 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of latching vs leaching
Shared letters: acghiln. Private to "latching": t. Private to "leaching": e.
"latching" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCC · "leaching" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "latching" for "leaching" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "latching" or "leaching" show up more?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "latching" and "leaching".
- Full dictionary entry for "latching" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leaching" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #4,382 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "latching" and "leaching" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lacing vs latching". 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 #4,382 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.