lead
/lɛd/
"lead" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lead” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #636 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #636
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A heavy, pliable, inelastic metal element, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished; both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity. It is easily fusible, forms alloys with othe...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lead |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /lɛd/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #636 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lead” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for lead is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /lɛd/. Corpus data places it at rank #636 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for lead, with forms such as "elad", "laed", and "leadd". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "let", "LED", "lee", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English led, leed, from Old English lēad (“lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laud (“lead”), possibly borrowed from Proto-Celtic *ɸloudom, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd- (“to flow”). Cognate with Scots leid, lede (“lead”), North Frisian lud, lu… The correct English form is lead, spelled L-E-A-D.
Definition
- 1A heavy, pliable, inelastic metal element, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished; both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity. It is easily fusible, forms alloys with other metals, and is an ingredient of solder and type metal. Atomic number 82, symbol Pb (from Latin plumbum).
- 2A plummet or mass of lead attached to a line, used in sounding depth at sea or to estimate velocity in knots.
- 3A thin strip of type metal, used to separate lines of type in printing.
- 4Vertical space in advance of a row or between rows of text. Also known as leading.
- 5Sheets or plates of lead used as a covering for roofs.
- 6A roof covered with lead sheets or terne plates.
- 7A thin cylinder of graphite used in pencils.
- 8Bullets; ammunition.
- 9X-ray protective clothing lined with lead.
Etymology
From Middle English led, leed, from Old English lēad (“lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laud (“lead”), possibly borrowed from Proto-Celtic *ɸloudom, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd- (“to flow”). Cognate with Scots leid, lede (“lead”), North Frisian lud, luad (“lead”), West Frisian lead (“lead”), Dutch lood (“lead”), Low German Lod (“solder, plummet”), German Lot (“solder, plummet, sounding line”), Swedish lod (“solder, plummet”), Icelandic lóð (“a plumb, weight”), Irish luaidhe (“lead”) Latin plumbum (“lead”), Finnish luoti (“bullet”). Doublet of loth. More at flow. * (graphite in a pencil): Graphite was once believed to be a form of lead; see black lead and plumbago.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: elad,laed,leadd,leda,llead
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of lead - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “lead”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-E-A-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /lɛd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “let” - see the side-by-side comparison. lead vs let
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.