Which to use
“lav” and “leak” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,859
- “lav” frequency rank
- #6,160
- “leak” frequency rank
- 55019
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lav | leak |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Clipping of lavatory. | A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape. |
Where the eye mixes lav and leak
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lav vs leak
A purely visual mix-up. lav (/læv/) and leak (/liːk/) 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 55019, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lav is recorded at frequency rank #48,859, classified as anoun, pronounced /læv/. leak is at rank #6,160, tagged as anoun, pronounced /liːk/.
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 55019, this pair ranks #136,748 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lav vs leak
Shared letters: al. Private to "lav": v. Private to "leak": ek.
"lav" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "leak" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- leak ← elak · leakk · leka · lleak
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lav" and "leak" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "lav" vs "leak" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "lav" and "leak" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lav" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leak" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #136,748 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lav" and "leak" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lav vs LSC". 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 #136,748 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.