Which to use
“lad” and “leak” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,389
- “lad” frequency rank
- #38,893
- “leak” frequency rank
- 77282
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lad | leak |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Valet d’écurie chargé de garder et de soigner les chevaux de course. | Fuite d’informations confidentielles. |
Where the eye mixes lad and leak
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lad runs 3 letters (CVC) against leak's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: lad vs leak
A purely visual mix-up. lad (\lad\) and leak (\lik\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77282, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lad is recorded at frequency rank #38,389, classified as anoun, pronounced \lad\. leak is at rank #38,893, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lik\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 77282, this pair ranks #28,833 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lad vs leak
Shared letters: al. Private to "lad": d. Private to "leak": ek.
"lad" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "leak" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- leak ← elak · leakk · leka · lleak
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lad" and "leak" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "lad" vs "leak" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "lad" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leak" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #28,833 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lad" and "leak" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leak vs lep". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #28,833 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.