leakedvsloadedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#7,152
“leaked” frequency rank
#4,687
“loaded” frequency rank
11839
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leaked loaded
Definition simple past and past participle of leak simple past and past participle of load

Where the eye mixes leaked and loaded

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

6 ch
leaked
6 ch
loaded

Look-alike desk: leaked vs loaded

A purely visual mix-up. leaked (/liːkt/) and loaded (/ˈləʊ.dəd/) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11839, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leaked is recorded at frequency rank #7,152, classified as averb, pronounced /liːkt/. loaded is at rank #4,687, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈləʊ.dəd/.

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 11839, this pair ranks #484,862 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of leaked vs loaded

Shared letters: adel. Private to "leaked": k. Private to "loaded": o.

"leaked" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "loaded" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leakedelaked · laeked · leaekd · leakde · leakedd · leakked · lekaed · lleaked
  • loadedlaoded · lloaded · loadde · loadded · loadedd · loaedd · lodaed · oladed

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leaked" for "loaded" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/liːkt/ versus /ˈləʊ.dəd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "leaked" or "loaded"?
"loaded" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,687 in our English list, against #7,152 for "leaked". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "leaked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loaded" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #484,862 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leaked" and "loaded" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leaked vs leaker". 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 #484,862 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