leak
/liːk/noun, verb
leak is spelled L-E-A-K: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,138th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “leak vs leek” about 210 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, leak means “A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of leak is leaks.
How many letters and syllables are in leak?
| Letters | 4: L-E-A-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 12 times per million words; the 6,138th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is leak?
Leak appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,138th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce leak?
- /liːk/
Leak has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-leak.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with leak
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: leek (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with leak?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as leak.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: lake, kale.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of leak
- leaks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- leaking participle, present
- leaked participle, past
- more leak comparative
- most leak superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does leak mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.
a leak in a roof
- 2
The entrance or escape of a fluid through a crack, fissure, or other aperture.
The leak gained on the ship's pumps.
- 3
A divulgation, or disclosure, of information previously held secret.
The leaks by Chelsea Manning showed the secrets of the US military.
- 4
The person through whom such divulgation, or disclosure, occurs.
- 5
A loss of electricity through imperfect insulation, or the point where it occurs.
- 6
The gradual loss of a system resource caused by failure to deallocate previously reserved portions.
resource leak
- 7
slangvulgarAn act of urination.
I have to take a leak.
verb
- 1
To allow fluid or gas to pass through an opening that should be sealed.
The wells are believed to have been leaking oil for decades, long after the operating company ceased to exist.
- 2
(of a fluid or gas) To pass through an opening that should be sealed.
The faucet has been leaking since last month.
- 3
To disclose secret information surreptitiously or anonymously.
Someone must have leaked it to our competitors that the new product will be out soon.
- 4
To pass through when it would normally or preferably be blocked.
- 5
To allow anything through that would normally or preferably be blocked.
- 6
slangTo urinate.
I had to leak in the woods since there were no toilets around.
- 7
USslangTo bleed.
He shanked him, now he's leaking.
- 8
slangvulgarTo ejaculate.
adjective
- 1
obsoleteLeaky.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Leak in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | fuite, voie d'eau , taupe , fuir |
| German | undichte Stelle, Leck , lecken, tropfen , durchsickern, durchstechen |
| Portuguese | vazamento, fuga , vazador , vazar , fuga de informação |
| Spanish | gotera, agujero, rotura, vía , pérdida, liqueo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does leak come from?
From Middle English leken (“to let water in or out”), from Old English *lecan (“to leak”), Middle Dutch leken (“to leak, drip”) or Old Norse leka (“to leak, drip”); all from Proto-Germanic *lekaną (“to leak, drain”), from Proto-Indo-European *leg- (“to leak”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).