leakvslevWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,160
“leak” frequency rank
#23,890
“lev” frequency rank
30050
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leak lev
Definition A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape. The currency of Bulgaria from 1880 to 2025; divided into 100 stotinki.

Where the eye mixes leak and lev

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
leak
3 ch
lev

Look-alike desk: leak vs lev

A purely visual mix-up. leak (/liːk/) and lev (/lɛv/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30050, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leak is recorded at frequency rank #6,160, classified as anoun, pronounced /liːk/. lev is at rank #23,890, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɛv/.

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 30050, this pair ranks #357,780 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leak vs lev

Shared letters: el. Private to "leak": ak. Private to "lev": v.

"leak" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "lev" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leakelak · leakk · leka · lleak

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "leak" and "lev" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/liːk/ versus /lɛv/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "leak" or "lev" show up more?
"leak" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,160 in our English list, against #23,890 for "lev". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "leak" and "lev" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leak" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lev" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #357,780 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leak" and "lev" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lev vs LSC". 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 #357,780 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