Which to use
“leash” and “lees” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,650
- “leash” frequency rank
- #27,538
- “lees” frequency rank
- 43188
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leash | lees |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A strap, cord or rope with which to restrain an animal, often a dog. | The sediment that settles during fermentation of beverages, consisting of dead yeast and precipitated parts of the fruit. |
Where the eye mixes leash and lees
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses leash with lees
A purely visual mix-up. leash (/liːʃ/) and lees (/liːz/) 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 43188, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
leash is recorded at frequency rank #15,650, classified as anoun, pronounced /liːʃ/. lees is at rank #27,538, tagged as anoun, pronounced /liːz/.
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 43188, this pair ranks #242,406 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of leash vs lees
Shared letters: els. Private to "leash": ah. Private to "lees": -.
"leash" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "lees" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "leash" and "lees" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "leash" or "lees" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "leash" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lees" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #242,406 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leash" and "lees" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lees vs lel". 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 #242,406 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.