Which to use
“leaking” is a verb and “lending” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,243
- “leaking” frequency rank
- #8,685
- “lending” frequency rank
- 19928
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leaking | lending |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of leak | The action of, or an instance of the action of the verb to lend. |
Letter map: leaking vs lending
Shared letters muted; letters that set leaking and lending apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. leaking (CVVCVCC) and lending (CVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for leaking / lending
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leaking is averb and lendinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
leaking is recorded at frequency rank #11,243, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈliːkɪŋ/. lending is at rank #8,685, tagged as anoun.
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 19928, this pair ranks #434,722 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of leaking vs lending
Shared letters: egiln. Private to "leaking": ak. Private to "lending": d.
"leaking" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "lending" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "leaking" and "lending" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "leaking" or "lending" show up more?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "leaking" and "lending".
- Full dictionary entry for "leaking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lending" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #434,722 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leaking" and "lending" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lacing vs leaking". 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 #434,722 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.