Which to use
“leaving” is a verb and “lending” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,123
- “leaving” frequency rank
- #8,685
- “lending” frequency rank
- 9808
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leaving | lending |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of leave | The action of, or an instance of the action of the verb to lend. |
Letter map: leaving vs lending
Shared letters muted; letters that set leaving and lending apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. leaving (CVVCVCC) and lending (CVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for leaving / lending
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leaving is averb and lendinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9808, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
leaving is recorded at frequency rank #1,123, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈliːvɪŋ/. lending is at rank #8,685, tagged as anoun.
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 9808, this pair ranks #495,479 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of leaving vs lending
Shared letters: egiln. Private to "leaving": av. Private to "lending": d.
"leaving" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "lending" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "leaving" for "lending" ever safe?
Which is more common, "leaving" or "lending"?
Useful next steps
Pair "leaving" vs "lending" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "leaving" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lending" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #495,479 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leaving" and "lending" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lending vs Lessing". 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 #495,479 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.