leasedvsloadedTell them apart

Which to use

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

#12,629
“leased” frequency rank
#4,687
“loaded” frequency rank
17316
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leased loaded
Definition simple past and past participle of lease simple past and past participle of load

Where the eye mixes leased and loaded

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

6 ch
leased
6 ch
loaded

Visual trap between leased and loaded

A purely visual mix-up. leased (/liːst/) and loaded (/ˈləʊ.dəd/) 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 17316, 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/. loaded is at rank #4,687, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈləʊ.dəd/.

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 17316, this pair ranks #452,216 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of leased vs loaded

Shared letters: adel. Private to "leased": s. Private to "loaded": o.

"leased" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "loaded" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leasedelased · laesed · leaesd · leasde · leasedd · leassed · lesaed · lleased
  • loadedlaoded · lloaded · loadde · loadded · loadedd · loaedd · lodaed · oladed

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "leased" and "loaded" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/liːst/ versus /ˈləʊ.dəd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "leased" or "loaded" show up more?
"loaded" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,687 in our English list, against #12,629 for "leased". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "leased" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loaded" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #452,216 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leased" and "loaded" 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 #452,216 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