Which to use
“leased” is a verb and “lesser” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,629
- “leased” frequency rank
- #5,806
- “lesser” frequency rank
- 18435
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leased | lesser |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of lease | comparative form of little: more little |
Where the eye mixes leased and lesser
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses leased with lesser
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leased is /liːst/ while lesser is /ˈlɛsɚ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18435, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
leased is recorded at frequency rank #12,629, classified as averb, pronounced /liːst/. lesser is at rank #5,806, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈlɛsɚ/.
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 18435, this pair ranks #444,925 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of leased vs lesser
Shared letters: els. Private to "leased": ad. Private to "lesser": r.
"leased" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "lesser" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "leased" and "lesser" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "leased" or "lesser" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "leased" and "lesser" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "leased" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lesser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #444,925 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leased" and "lesser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leased vs lessee". 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 #444,925 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.