landingvsleadingWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: landing is a noun, leading is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“landing” is a noun and “leading” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,374
“landing” frequency rank
#45,433
“leading” frequency rank
69807
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature landing leading
Definition aterrissagem principal, importante

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set landing and leading apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
landing
7 ch
leading

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: landing is /ˈlændɪŋ/ while leading is /ˈliːdɪŋ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69807, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

landing is recorded at frequency rank #24,374, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlændɪŋ/. leading is at rank #45,433, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈliːdɪŋ/.

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 69807, this pair ranks #3,839 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of landing vs leading

Shared letters: adgiln. Private to "landing": -. Private to "leading": e.

"landing" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "leading" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • landingalnding · ladning · landding · landign · landingg · landinng · landnig · lanidng
  • leadingelading · laeding · leadding · leadign · leadingg · leadinng · leadnig · leaidng

Frequency comparison

landing#24,374
leading#45,433

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "landing" and "leading" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "landing" is a noun and "leading" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "landing" or "leading"?
"landing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,374 in our Portuguese list, against #45,433 for "leading". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering landing vs leading

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “landing”; for an adjective, it's “leading”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “landing” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list