leasevsledgeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,432
“lease” frequency rank
#16,956
“ledge” frequency rank
22388
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lease ledge
Definition An interest in land granting exclusive use or occupation of real estate for a limited period; a leasehold. A narrow surface projecting horizontally from a wall, cliff, or other surface.

Where the eye mixes lease and ledge

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
lease
5 ch
ledge

Why the eye confuses lease with ledge

A purely visual mix-up. lease (/liːs/) and ledge (/lɛd͡ʒ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22388, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lease is recorded at frequency rank #5,432, classified as anoun, pronounced /liːs/. ledge is at rank #16,956, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɛd͡ʒ/.

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 22388, this pair ranks #416,955 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lease vs ledge

Shared letters: el. Private to "lease": as. Private to "ledge": dg.

"lease" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "ledge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leaseelase · laese · leaes · leasse · lesae · llease
  • ledgeeldge · ldege · leddge · ledeg · ledgge · legde · lledge

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lease" and "ledge" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/liːs/ versus /lɛd͡ʒ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lease" vs "ledge" - which ranks higher?
"lease" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,432 in our English list, against #16,956 for "ledge". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lease" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ledge" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #416,955 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lease" and "ledge" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ledge vs lodger". 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 #416,955 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