Which to use
“leek” and “levee” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,158
- “leek” frequency rank
- #37,541
- “levee” frequency rank
- 71699
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leek | levee |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A vegetable of variety Allium ampeloprasum, having edible leaves and an onion-like bulb but with a milder flavour than the onion. | An elevated ridge of deposited sediment on the banks of a river, formed by the river's overflow at times of high discharge. |
Where the eye mixes leek and levee
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. leek runs 4 letters (CVVC) against levee's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: leek vs levee
A purely visual mix-up. leek (/liːk/) and levee (/ˈlɛvi/) 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 71699, 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/. levee is at rank #37,541, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɛvi/.
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 71699, this pair ranks #45,765 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of leek vs levee
Shared letters: el. Private to "leek": k. Private to "levee": v.
"leek" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "levee" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "leek" for "levee" ever safe?
Which is more common, "leek" or "levee"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "leek" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "levee" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #45,765 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leek" and "levee" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laver vs levee". 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 #45,765 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.