Which to use
“leaking” is a verb and “Lessing” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,243
- “leaking” frequency rank
- #42,744
- “Lessing” frequency rank
- 53987
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leaking | Lessing |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of leak | A surname from German. |
Letter map: leaking vs Lessing
Shared letters muted; letters that set leaking and Lessing apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Part-of-speech tell for leaking / Lessing
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leaking is averb and Lessinganame. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53987, 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/. Lessing is at rank #42,744, tagged as aname.
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 53987, this pair ranks #144,621 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of leaking vs Lessing
Shared letters: egiln. Private to "leaking": ak. Private to "Lessing": s.
"leaking" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "Lessing" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "leaking" for "Lessing" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "leaking" or "Lessing" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "leaking" vs "Lessing" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "leaking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Lessing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #144,621 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leaking" and "Lessing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lashing vs Lessing". 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 #144,621 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.