# leech vs lees

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### leech
*noun · IPA /liːt͡ʃ/ · frequency rank #23,327*
An aquatic blood-sucking annelid of subclass Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis.

### lees
*noun · IPA /liːz/ · frequency rank #27,538*
The sediment that settles during fermentation of beverages, consisting of dead yeast and precipitated parts of the fruit.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/leech-vs-lees