Which to use
“leek” and “lets” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,158
- “leek” frequency rank
- #2,952
- “lets” frequency rank
- 37110
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leek | lets |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A vegetable of variety Allium ampeloprasum, having edible leaves and an onion-like bulb but with a milder flavour than the onion. | plural of let |
Where the eye mixes leek and lets
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses leek with lets
A purely visual mix-up. leek (/liːk/) and lets (/lɛts/) 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 37110, 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/. lets is at rank #2,952, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɛts/.
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 37110, this pair ranks #297,312 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of leek vs lets
Shared letters: el. Private to "leek": k. Private to "lets": st.
"leek" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "lets" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "leek" and "lets" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "leek" or "lets"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "leek" and "lets" 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 "lets" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #297,312 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leek" and "lets" 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 #297,312 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.