Which to use
“leach” is a noun and “leary” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,983
- “leach” frequency rank
- #34,564
- “leary” frequency rank
- 55547
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leach | leary |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A quantity of wood ashes, through which water passes, and thus imbibes the alkali. | Alternative spelling of leery. |
Letter map: leach vs leary
Shared letters muted; letters that set leach and leary apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. leach (CVVCC) and leary (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Grammar separator: leach vs leary
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leach is anoun and learyanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55547, 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/. leary is at rank #34,564, tagged as anadj.
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 55547, this pair ranks #132,804 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of leach vs leary
Shared letters: ael. Private to "leach": ch. Private to "leary": ry.
"leach" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "leary" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "leach" for "leary" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "leach" or "leary" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "leach" vs "leary" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "leach" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leary" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #132,804 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leach" and "leary" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leary vs leery". 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 #132,804 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.