Which to use
“leek” is a noun and “leer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,158
- “leek” frequency rank
- #47,726
- “leer” frequency rank
- 81884
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leek | leer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A vegetable of variety Allium ampeloprasum, having edible leaves and an onion-like bulb but with a milder flavour than the onion. | To look sideways or obliquely; now especially with sexual desire or malicious intent. |
Where the eye mixes leek and leer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. leek and leer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses leek with leer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leek is /liːk/ while leer is /lɪə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - k in “leek” becomes r in “leer”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81884, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
leek is recorded at frequency rank #34,158, classified as anoun, pronounced /liːk/. leer is at rank #47,726, tagged as averb, pronounced /lɪə/.
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 81884, this pair ranks #16,780 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of leek vs leer
Shared letters: el. Private to "leek": k. Private to "leer": r.
"leek" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "leer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "leek" for "leer" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "leek" or "leer" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "leek" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #16,780 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leek" and "leer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leer 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 #16,780 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.