legvsleighWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“leg” and “leigh” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,215
“leg” frequency rank
#10,388
“leigh” frequency rank
12603
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leg leigh
Definition A limb or appendage that an animal uses for support or locomotion on land. A meadow.

Where the eye mixes leg and leigh

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
leg
5 ch
leigh

Visual trap between leg and leigh

A purely visual mix-up. leg (/lɛɡ/) and leigh (/liː/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12603, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leg is recorded at frequency rank #2,215, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɛɡ/. leigh is at rank #10,388, tagged as anoun, pronounced /liː/.

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 12603, this pair ranks #480,615 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of leg vs leigh

Shared letters: egl. Private to "leg": -. Private to "leigh": hi.

"leg" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "leigh" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leigheligh · legih · leiggh · leighh · leihg · liegh · lleigh

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leg" for "leigh" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/lɛɡ/ versus /liː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "leg" vs "leigh" - which ranks higher?
"leg" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,215 in our English list, against #10,388 for "leigh". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "leg" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leigh" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #480,615 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leg" and "leigh" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Leh vs leigh". 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 #480,615 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list