Which to use
“lead” is a noun and “les” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #636
- “lead” frequency rank
- #6,067
- “les” frequency rank
- 6703
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lead | les |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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 metals, and is an ingredient of solder and type metal. Atomic number 82, symbol Pb (from Latin plumbum). | Clipping of lesbian. |
Where the eye mixes lead and les
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lead is /lɛd/ while les is /lɛz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6703, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lead is recorded at frequency rank #636, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɛd/. les is at rank #6,067, tagged as anadj, pronounced /lɛz/.
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 6703, this pair ranks #510,330 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lead vs les
Shared letters: el. Private to "lead": ad. Private to "les": s.
"lead" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "les" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- lead ← elad · laed · leadd · leda · llead