Which to use
“leaner” is an adjective and “leans” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,939
- “leaner” frequency rank
- #20,409
- “leans” frequency rank
- 59348
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leaner | leans |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | comparative form of lean: more lean | third-person singular simple present indicative of lean |
Letter map: leaner vs leans
Shared letters muted; letters that set leaner and leans apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Part-of-speech tell for leaner / leans
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leaner is anadjective and leansaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59348, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
leaner is recorded at frequency rank #38,939, classified as anadj. leans is at rank #20,409, tagged as averb, pronounced /liːnz/.
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 59348, this pair ranks #106,749 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of leaner vs leans
Shared letters: aeln. Private to "leaner": r. Private to "leans": s.
"leaner" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "leans" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "leaner" and "leans" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "leaner" or "leans"?
After this comparison
Pair "leaner" vs "leans" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "leaner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #106,749 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leaner" and "leans" 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 #106,749 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.