Leak or leek?
leak is a noun meaning “A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets…”; leek is a noun meaning “A vegetable of variety Allium ampeloprasum, having edible leaves and an…”. They sound the same (/liːk/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) leak is about 17 times as common as leek.
What is the difference between leak and leek?
| leak | leek | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb, adjective | noun |
| Meaning | A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape The entrance or escape of a fluid through a crack, fissure, or other aperture To allow fluid or gas to pass through an opening that should be sealed | A vegetable of variety Allium ampeloprasum, having edible leaves and an onion-like bulb but with a milder flavour than the onion Any of several species of Allium, broadly resembling the domesticated plant in appearance in the wild |
| Example | a leak in a roof | none recorded |
| Forms | leaks | leeks |
| Pronunciation | /liːk/ | /liːk/ |
| In writing | 12 times per million words | about once in every 1 million words |
Sources: leak and leek 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 leak and leek
leak
- 1
A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape
a leak in a roof
- 2
To allow fluid or gas to pass through an opening that should be sealed
The wells are believed to have been leaking oil for decades, long after the operating company ceased to exist
- 3
The entrance or escape of a fluid through a crack, fissure, or other aperture
The leak gained on the ship's pumps
- 4
(of a fluid or gas) To pass through an opening that should be sealed
The faucet has been leaking since last month
- 5
A divulgation, or disclosure, of information previously held secret
The leaks by Chelsea Manning showed the secrets of the US military
- 6
To disclose secret information surreptitiously or anonymously
Someone must have leaked it to our competitors that the new product will be out soon
- 7
The person through whom such divulgation, or disclosure, occurs
- 8
To pass through when it would normally or preferably be blocked
leek
- 1
A vegetable of variety Allium ampeloprasum, having edible leaves and an onion-like bulb but with a milder flavour than the onion
- 2
Any of several species of Allium, broadly resembling the domesticated plant in appearance in the wild
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, leak or leek?
leak appears 12 times per million words; leek about once in every 1 million words.
leak 12 times per million wordsleek about once in every 1 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 leak vs leek?
“leak vs leek” is searched about 210 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“leek vs leak”, “leak or leek”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.