leaguevsleaveWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: league is a noun, leave is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“league” is a noun and “leave” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#772
“league” frequency rank
#457
“leave” frequency rank
1229
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature league leave
Definition A group or association of cooperating members. To have a consequence or remnant.

Where the eye mixes league and leave

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
league
5 ch
leave

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: league is /liːɡ/ while leave is /liːv/. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1229, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

league is recorded at frequency rank #772, classified as anoun, pronounced /liːɡ/. leave is at rank #457, tagged as averb, pronounced /liːv/.

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 1229, this pair ranks #527,836 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of league vs leave

Shared letters: ael. Private to "league": gu. Private to "leave": v.

"league" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV  ·  "leave" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leagueelague · laegue · leageu · leaggue · leauge · legaue · lleague
  • leaveelave · laeve · leaev · leavve · levae · lleave

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "league" and "leave" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "league" is a noun and "leave" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "league" or "leave"?
"leave" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #457 in our English list, against #772 for "league". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list