leak

/liːk/

//liːk// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"leak" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“leak” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #6,160) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#6,160
frequency rank, English
2,297
“L” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.

Corpus desk

Index EN-leak · leak · English

leak · rank #6,160 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #6,160
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,297
  • PHOTO-FINISH lawsuit

Nearest frequency peer: lawsuit (-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 neighbours of confusable “leak”

Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below

corpus weight

What this shows Bars place “leak” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

leak vs let
50% similar
leak vs LED
0% similar
leak vs lee
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for leak
PropertyValue
Headwordleak
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/liːk/
Letters4
Frequency rank#6,160
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “leak”

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).leaklands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “lawsuit” (#6,159), “lighter” (#6,161), “lasted” (#6,158). Among 2,297 “L” headwords, “leak” is #6,160. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for leak is neighbouring look-alikes ("let", "LED", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /liːk/. Frequency #6,160 among 2,297 “L” headwords. 7 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for leak, with forms such as "elak", "leakk", and "leka". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "let", "LED", "lee", 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 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-, *leǵ- (“… The correct English form is leak, spelled L-E-A-K.

Definition

  1. 1
    A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.
  2. 2
    The entrance or escape of a fluid through a crack, fissure, or other aperture.
  3. 3
    A divulgation, or disclosure, of information previously held secret.
  4. 4
    The person through whom such divulgation, or disclosure, occurs.
  5. 5
    A loss of electricity through imperfect insulation, or the point where it occurs.
  6. 6
    The gradual loss of a system resource caused by failure to deallocate previously reserved portions.
  7. 7
    An act of urination.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how leak appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. a leak in a roof
  2. a leak in a boat

Etymology

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-, *leǵ- (“to leak”). Cognate with Dutch lekken (“to leak”), German lechen, lecken (“to leak”), Danish lække (“to leak”), Swedish läcka (“to leak”), Icelandic leka (“to leak”). Related also to Old English leċċan (“to water, wet”), Albanian lag, lak (“I damp, make wet”). See also leach, lake. (divulgation, disclosure of information): Compare typologically Bulgarian изтичане (iztičane), Polish przeciek, Russian уте́чка (utéčka) (akin to течь impf or f (tečʹ)).

This word in other languages

gotera(Español)fuite(Français)Leck(Deutsch)fuga(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • elak
  • leakk
  • leka
  • lleak

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of leak - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

elak2leakk1leka2lleak1
Edit distance from "leak"

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

How do you spell "leak"?
"leak" is spelled L-E-A-K. The IPA pronunciation is /liːk/.
What does "leak" mean?
As a noun, "leak" means: A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.
What words are commonly confused with "leak"?
"leak" is commonly confused with "let", "LED", "lee". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "leak"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "leak" is /liːk/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "leak"?
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-... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "leak", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

jets#6,155mice#6,166riot#6,174euro#6,136

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list