Lead or led?
led is the simple past and past participle of lead. lead is also a noun: “A heavy, pliable, inelastic metal element, having a bright, bluish color, but…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) lead is about as common as led.
What is the difference between lead and led?
| lead | led | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb, adjective | noun, adjective, verb |
| Meaning | To guide or conduct with the hand, or by means of some physical contact connection To cover, fill, or affect with lead To place leads between the lines of To guide or conduct in a certain course, or to a certain place or end, by making the way known; to show the way, especially by going with or going in advance… | simple past and past participle of lead Under somebody's control or leadership Of a farm, etc.: managed by a deputy instead of the owner or tenant in person |
| Example | This copy has too much lead; I prefer less space between the lines | none recorded |
| Forms | leads, leading, led | none |
| Pronunciation | /ˈlɛd/ [ˈlɛd] /ˈliːd/ | /ɛl.iːˈdiː/ /lɛd/ /ˈlɛd/ |
| In writing | 158 times per million words | 129 times per million words |
Sources: lead and led in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of lead and led
lead
- 1
A heavy, pliable, inelastic metal element, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished; both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity. It is easily fusible, forms alloys with other…
- 2
To cover, fill, or affect with lead
continuous firing leads the grooves of a rifle
- 3
To guide or conduct with the hand, or by means of some physical contact connection
a father leads a child
- 4
The act of leading or conducting; guidance; direction, course
to take the lead
- 5
Foremost
The contestants are all tied; no one has the lead position
- 6
A plummet or mass of lead attached to a line, used in sounding depth at sea or to estimate velocity in knots
- 7
To place leads between the lines of
to lead a page
- 8
To guide or conduct in a certain course, or to a certain place or end, by making the way known; to show the way, especially by going with or going in advance of; to guide somebody somewhere or to…
The guide was able to lead the tourists through the jungle safely
led
- 1
Initialism of light-emitting diode
- 2
Under somebody's control or leadership
- 3
Abbreviation of microLED
- 4
Of a farm, etc.: managed by a deputy instead of the owner or tenant in person
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, lead or led?
lead appears 158 times per million words; led 129 times per million words.
lead 158 times per million wordsled 129 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search lead vs led?
“lead vs led” is searched about 27,100 times a month on Google and 900 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“led vs lead”, “lead or led”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.