Which to use
“leach” and “leech” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,983
- “leach” frequency rank
- #23,327
- “leech” frequency rank
- 44310
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leach | leech |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A quantity of wood ashes, through which water passes, and thus imbibes the alkali. | An aquatic blood-sucking annelid of subclass Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis. |
Same sound, different letters: leach vs leech
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - leach / leech
This is the hard kind. leach and leech are pronounced identically (/liːt͡ʃ/) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - a in “leach” becomes e in “leech”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44310, 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/. leech is at rank #23,327, tagged as anoun, pronounced /liːt͡ʃ/.
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 44310, this pair ranks #231,828 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of leach vs leech
Shared letters: cehl. Private to "leach": a. Private to "leech": -.
"leach" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "leech" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "leach" and "leech" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "leach" vs "leech" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "leach" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leech" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #231,828 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leach" and "leech" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leech 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 #231,828 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.