Which to use
“lead” and “leak” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,773
- “lead” frequency rank
- #38,893
- “leak” frequency rank
- 59666
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lead | leak |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Puissant coup de poing direct du bras arrière. | Fuite d’informations confidentielles. |
Where the eye mixes lead and leak
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lead vs leak
A purely visual mix-up. lead (\lid\) 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 a single letter - d in “lead” becomes k in “leak”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59666, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lead is recorded at frequency rank #20,773, classified as anoun, pronounced \lid\. 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 59666, this pair ranks #101,872 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lead vs leak
Shared letters: ael. Private to "lead": d. Private to "leak": k.
"lead" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "leak" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lead" for "leak" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lead" vs "leak" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "lead" 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 #101,872 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lead" 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 #101,872 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.