leapedvsleaptTell them apart

Which to use

“leaped” and “leapt” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#38,472
“leaped” frequency rank
#27,194
“leapt” frequency rank
65666
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leaped leapt
Definition simple past and past participle of leap simple past and past participle of leap

Where the eye mixes leaped and leapt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
leaped
5 ch
leapt

Visual trap between leaped and leapt

A purely visual mix-up. leaped (/liːpt/) and leapt (/lɛpt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65666, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leaped is recorded at frequency rank #38,472, classified as averb, pronounced /liːpt/. leapt is at rank #27,194, tagged as averb, pronounced /lɛpt/.

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 65666, this pair ranks #71,642 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of leaped vs leapt

Shared letters: aelp. Private to "leaped": d. Private to "leapt": t.

"leaped" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "leapt" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leapedelaped · laeped · leaepd · leapde · leapedd · leapped · lepaed · lleaped
  • leaptelapt · laept · leappt · leaptt · leatp · lepat · lleapt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leaped" for "leapt" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/liːpt/ versus /lɛpt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "leaped" vs "leapt" - which ranks higher?
"leapt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,194 in our English list, against #38,472 for "leaped". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leaped" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leapt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,642 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leaped" and "leapt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leaker vs leaped". 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 #71,642 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list