Which to use
“leaned” is a verb and “leaner” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,954
- “leaned” frequency rank
- #38,939
- “leaner” frequency rank
- 55893
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leaned | leaner |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of lean | comparative form of lean: more lean |
Letter map: leaned vs leaner
Shared letters muted; letters that set leaned and leaner apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Part-of-speech tell for leaned / leaner
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leaned is averb and leaneranadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - d in “leaned” becomes r in “leaner”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55893, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
leaned is recorded at frequency rank #16,954, classified as averb, pronounced /liːnd/. leaner is at rank #38,939, tagged as anadj.
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 55893, this pair ranks #130,156 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of leaned vs leaner
Shared letters: aeln. Private to "leaned": d. Private to "leaner": r.
"leaned" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "leaner" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "leaned" and "leaner" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "leaned" or "leaner"?
After this comparison
Pair "leaned" vs "leaner" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "leaned" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leaner" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #130,156 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leaned" and "leaner" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laver vs leaner". 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 #130,156 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.