Which to use
“leek” and “lei” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,158
- “leek” frequency rank
- #23,328
- “lei” frequency rank
- 57486
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leek | lei |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A vegetable of variety Allium ampeloprasum, having edible leaves and an onion-like bulb but with a milder flavour than the onion. | A garland of flowers in Hawaii. |
Where the eye mixes leek and lei
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: leek vs lei
A purely visual mix-up. leek (/liːk/) and lei (/leɪ/) 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 57486, 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/. lei is at rank #23,328, tagged as anoun, pronounced /leɪ/.
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 57486, this pair ranks #118,989 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of leek vs lei
Shared letters: el. Private to "leek": k. Private to "lei": i.
"leek" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "lei" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- leek ← elek · leekk · lek · leke · lleek
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "leek" for "lei" ever safe?
Frequency check: "leek" vs "lei" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "leek" and "lei" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "leek" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #118,989 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leek" and "lei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leek 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 #118,989 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.