leaptvslearyTell them apart

Quick tell: leapt is a verb, leary is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“leapt” is a verb and “leary” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,194
“leapt” frequency rank
#34,564
“leary” frequency rank
61758
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leapt leary
Definition simple past and past participle of leap Alternative spelling of leery.

Letter map: leapt vs leary

Shared letters muted; letters that set leapt and leary apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
leapt
5 ch
leary

Part-of-speech tell for leapt / leary

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leapt is averb and learyanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61758, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leapt is recorded at frequency rank #27,194, classified as averb, pronounced /lɛpt/. leary is at rank #34,564, 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 61758, this pair ranks #92,387 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of leapt vs leary

Shared letters: ael. Private to "leapt": pt. Private to "leary": ry.

"leapt" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "leary" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leaptelapt · laept · leappt · leaptt · leatp · lepat · lleapt
  • learyelary · laery · learry · learyy · leayr · leray · lleary

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "leapt" and "leary" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leapt" is a verb and "leary" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "leapt" or "leary"?
"leapt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,194 in our English list, against #34,564 for "leary". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "leapt" and "leary".

  • Full dictionary entry for "leapt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leary" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #92,387 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leapt" and "leary" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leary vs leery". 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 #92,387 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