leaguevslegumeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“league” and “legume” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#772
“league” frequency rank
#47,727
“legume” frequency rank
48499
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature league legume
Definition A group or association of cooperating members. The fruit or seed of leguminous plants (as peas or beans) used for food.

Where the eye mixes league and legume

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. league (CVVCVV) and legume (CVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
league
6 ch
legume

Visual trap between league and legume

A purely visual mix-up. league (/liːɡ/) and legume (/ˈlɛɡ.juːm/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48499, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

league is recorded at frequency rank #772, classified as anoun, pronounced /liːɡ/. legume is at rank #47,727, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɛɡ.juːm/.

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 48499, this pair ranks #192,512 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of league vs legume

Shared letters: eglu. Private to "league": a. Private to "legume": m.

"league" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV  ·  "legume" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • league ← elague · laegue · leageu · leaggue · leauge · legaue · lleague
  • legume ← elgume · leggume · legmue · leguem · legumme · leugme · lgeume · llegume

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "league" and "legume" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/liːɡ/ versus /ˈlɛɡ.juːm/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "league" vs "legume" - which ranks higher?
"league" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #772 in our English list, against #47,727 for "legume". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "league" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "legume" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #192,512 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "league" and "legume" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "legume vs legumes". 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 #192,512 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list