leading
/ˈliːdɪŋ/
"leading" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“leading” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,087 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #1,087
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 16
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - present participle and gerund of lead
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 | leading |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈliːdɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #1,087 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 16 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “leading” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for leading is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈliːdɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,087 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "present participle and gerund of lead".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for leading, with forms such as "elading", "laeding", and "leadding". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 16 confusable-pair relationships, "leaving", "letting", "loading", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ledinge, ledynge, ledand, ledande, ledende, from Old English lǣdende, from Proto-West Germanic *laidijandī, from Proto-Germanic *laidijandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *laidijaną (“to lead”), equivalent to lead + -ing. Compare … The correct English form is leading, spelled L-E-A-D-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of lead
Etymology
From Middle English ledinge, ledynge, ledand, ledande, ledende, from Old English lǣdende, from Proto-West Germanic *laidijandī, from Proto-Germanic *laidijandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *laidijaną (“to lead”), equivalent to lead + -ing. Compare West Frisian liedend, Dutch leidend, German leitend, Swedish ledande, Icelandic leiðandi.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: elading,laeding,leadding,leadign,leadingg,leadinng,leadnig,leaidng,ledaing,lleading
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of leading - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “leading”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-E-A-D-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈliːdɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “leaving” - see the side-by-side comparison. leading vs leaving
- 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.