Which to use
“leach” and “lear” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,983
- “leach” frequency rank
- #21,846
- “lear” frequency rank
- 42829
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leach | lear |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A quantity of wood ashes, through which water passes, and thus imbibes the alkali. | Something learned; a lesson. |
Where the eye mixes leach and lear
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between leach and lear
A purely visual mix-up. leach (/liːt͡ʃ/) and lear (/ˈlɪɹ/) 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 42829, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
leach is recorded at frequency rank #20,983, classified as anoun, pronounced /liːt͡ʃ/. lear is at rank #21,846, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɪɹ/.
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 42829, this pair ranks #245,723 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of leach vs lear
Shared letters: ael. Private to "leach": ch. Private to "lear": r.
"leach" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "lear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "leach" for "lear" ever safe?
Frequency check: "leach" vs "lear" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "leach" and "lear" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "leach" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lear" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #245,723 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leach" and "lear" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lear vs lel". 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 #245,723 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.