# leach vs leech

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### leach
*noun · IPA /liːt͡ʃ/ · frequency rank #20,983*
A quantity of wood ashes, through which water passes, and thus imbibes the alkali.

### leech
*noun · IPA /liːt͡ʃ/ · frequency rank #23,327*
An aquatic blood-sucking annelid of subclass Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/leach-vs-leech