leapedvsleaveWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#38,472
“leaped” frequency rank
#457
“leave” frequency rank
38929
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leaped leave
Definition simple past and past participle of leap To have a consequence or remnant.

Where the eye mixes leaped and leave

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. leaped runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against leave's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
leaped
5 ch
leave

Look-alike desk: leaped vs leave

A purely visual mix-up. leaped (/liːpt/) and leave (/liːv/) 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 38929, 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/. leave is at rank #457, tagged as averb, pronounced /liːv/.

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 38929, this pair ranks #281,390 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leaped vs leave

Shared letters: ael. Private to "leaped": dp. Private to "leave": v.

"leaped" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "leave" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leaped ← elaped · laeped · leaepd · leapde · leapedd · leapped · lepaed · lleaped
  • leave ← elave · laeve · leaev · leavve · levae · lleave

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "leaped" and "leave" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/liːpt/ versus /liːv/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "leaped" vs "leave" - which ranks higher?
"leave" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #457 in our English list, against #38,472 for "leaped". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "leaped" and "leave" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leaped" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leave" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #281,390 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leaped" and "leave" 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 #281,390 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