Which to use
“leek” and “link” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,158
- “leek” frequency rank
- #1,108
- “link” frequency rank
- 35266
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leek | link |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A vegetable of variety Allium ampeloprasum, having edible leaves and an onion-like bulb but with a milder flavour than the onion. | A connection between places, people, events, things, or ideas. |
Where the eye mixes leek and link
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses leek with link
A purely visual mix-up. leek (/liːk/) and link (/lɪŋk/) 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 35266, 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/. link is at rank #1,108, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɪŋk/.
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 35266, this pair ranks #313,436 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of leek vs link
Shared letters: kl. Private to "leek": e. Private to "link": in.
"leek" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "link" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "leek" and "link" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "leek" vs "link" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
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 "link" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #313,436 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leek" and "link" 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 #313,436 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.