leavedvsleggedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,731
“leaved” frequency rank
#14,982
“legged” frequency rank
56713
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leaved legged
Definition Having a leaf, leaves or folds. Having legs of a certain specified type or number.

Where the eye mixes leaved and legged

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

6 ch
leaved
6 ch
legged

Visual trap between leaved and legged

A purely visual mix-up. leaved (/liːvd/) and legged (/ˈlɛɡɪd/) 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 56713, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leaved is recorded at frequency rank #41,731, classified as anadj, pronounced /liːvd/. legged is at rank #14,982, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈlɛɡɪd/.

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 56713, this pair ranks #124,258 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of leaved vs legged

Shared letters: del. Private to "leaved": av. Private to "legged": g.

"leaved" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "legged" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leavedelaved · laeved · leaevd · leavde · leavedd · leavved · levaed · lleaved
  • leggedelgged · leged · legegd · leggde · leggedd · lgeged · llegged

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leaved" for "legged" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/liːvd/ versus /ˈlɛɡɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "leaved" or "legged"?
"legged" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,982 in our English list, against #41,731 for "leaved". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leaved" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "legged" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #124,258 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leaved" and "legged" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laver vs leaved". 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 #124,258 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