Which to use
“leaking” is a verb and “locking” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,243
- “leaking” frequency rank
- #10,231
- “locking” frequency rank
- 21474
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leaking | locking |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of leak | gerund of lock: the act by which something is locked. |
Letter map: leaking vs locking
Shared letters muted; letters that set leaking and locking apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Part-of-speech tell for leaking / locking
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leaking is averb and lockinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21474, 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/. locking is at rank #10,231, 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 21474, this pair ranks #423,634 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of leaking vs locking
Shared letters: gikln. Private to "leaking": ae. Private to "locking": co.
"leaking" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "locking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "leaking" and "locking" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "leaking" vs "locking" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've compared "leaking" and "locking". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "leaking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "locking" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #423,634 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leaking" and "locking" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "locking vs loring". 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 #423,634 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.