leaf
/liːf/
"leaf" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“leaf” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #4,958. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #4,958
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants.
Corpus desk
Index EN-leaf · leaf · English
leaf · rank #4,958 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #4,958
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH interpretation
Nearest frequency peer: interpretation (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “leaf”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- integration
integration
95,046 corpus weight
- integrity
integrity
95,045 corpus weight
- interpretat…
interpretation
95,044 corpus weight
- leaf
leaf
95,043 corpus weight
- legitimate
legitimate
95,042 corpus weight
- lightning
lightning
95,041 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “leaf” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | leaf |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /liːf/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #4,958 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “leaf” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around leaf (IPA /liːf/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,958 among 2,297 “L” headwords. Wiktionary lists 15 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for leaf, with forms such as "elaf", "laef", and "leaff". 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, "LF", "let", "LED", 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 leef, from Old English lēaf, from Proto-West Germanic *laub, from Proto-Germanic *laubą (“leaf”), from Proto-Indo-European *lowbʰ-o-m, from *lewbʰ- (“to cut off”). Cognates Cognate with Scots leaf (“leaf”), Yola laafe (“leaf”), North Fri… The correct English form is leaf, spelled L-E-A-F.
Definition
- 1The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants.
- 2A foliage leaf or any of the many and often considerably different structures it can specialise into.
- 3Anything resembling the leaf of a plant.
- 4A sheet of a book, magazine, etc. (consisting of two pages, one on each face of the leaf).
- 5A sheet of any substance beaten or rolled until very thin.
- 6One of the individual flat or curved strips of metal, typically made of spring steel, that make up a leaf spring.
- 7Tea leaves.
- 8A flat section used to extend the size of a table.
- 9A moveable panel, e.g. of a bridge or door, originally one that hinged but now also applied to other forms of movement.
- 10In a tree, a node that has no descendants.
- 11The layer of fat supporting the kidneys of a pig, leaf fat.
- 12One of the teeth of a pinion, especially when small.
- 13Cannabis.
- 14A Canadian person.
- 15A particular value of the EAX register when a program runs the CPUID instruction; each leaf represents a different category of information returned about the processor.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how leaf appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.
Heretofore advertisers have had to buy and pay for a leaf — two pages.
Etymology
From Middle English leef, from Old English lēaf, from Proto-West Germanic *laub, from Proto-Germanic *laubą (“leaf”), from Proto-Indo-European *lowbʰ-o-m, from *lewbʰ- (“to cut off”). Cognates Cognate with Scots leaf (“leaf”), Yola laafe (“leaf”), North Frisian luuf (“leaf”), Saterland Frisian Loof (“leaf”), West Frisian leaf (“leaf”), Cimbrian loap (“leaf”), Dutch loof (“foliage”), German Laub (“leaves”), German Low German Loov (“leaf”), Luxembourgish Laf (“foliage, leaves”), Mòcheno lap (“leaf”), Vilamovian łaub, łaup, łojp (“leaf”), Danish løv (“leaf”), Faroese leyv (“leaf”), Icelandic lauf (“leaf”), Norwegian Bokmål lauv, løv (“leaf”), Norwegian Nynorsk lauv (“leaf”), Swedish löf, löv (“leaf”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌿𐍆𐍃 (laufs, “leaf”); also Irish luibh (“herb, plant”), Latin liber (“bast; book”), Albanian labë (“rind”), Lithuanian lúobas (“bark; bast”), Polish łub (“bark”), Russian луб (lub, “bast”). (Internet slang: Canadian): In reference to the maple leaf as national symbol.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- elaf
- laef
- leaff
- lefa
- lleaf
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of leaf - 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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "leaf", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "leaf". Here's where to go from here.
- "leaf" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "LF". View pair
- 5 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #4,958 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "L" letter cohort. L–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.