lavervsleakerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#49,457
“laver” frequency rank
#48,319
“leaker” frequency rank
97776
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laver leaker
Definition A red alga/seaweed, Porphyra umbilicalis (syn. Porphyra laciniata), eaten as a vegetable. Somebody who leaks information.

Letter map: laver vs leaker

Shared letters muted; letters that set laver and leaker apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. laver runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against leaker's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
laver
6 ch
leaker

Spelling & dictionary notes on laver vs leaker

laver and leaker are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 97776, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laver is recorded at frequency rank #49,457, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɑːvə/. leaker is at rank #48,319, tagged as anoun.

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 97776, this pair ranks #248 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laver vs leaker

Shared letters: aelr. Private to "laver": v. Private to "leaker": k.

"laver" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "leaker" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laver ← alver · laevr · laverr · lavre · lavver · llaver · lvaer
  • leaker ← elaker · laeker · leaekr · leakerr · leakker · leakre · lekaer · lleaker

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "laver" and "leaker" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "laver" vs "leaker" - which ranks higher?
"leaker" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #48,319 in our English list, against #49,457 for "laver". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "laver" and "leaker".

  • Full dictionary entry for "laver" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leaker" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #248 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laver" and "leaker" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lav vs laver". 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 #248 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