leadvsleastWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“lead” and “least” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,835
“lead” frequency rank
#48,509
“least” frequency rank
66344
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lead least
Definition o mais importante mínimo, menor

Letter map: lead vs least

Shared letters muted; letters that set lead and least apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
lead
5 ch
least

Spelling & dictionary notes on lead vs least

lead and least are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66344, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lead is recorded at frequency rank #17,835, classified as anadj, pronounced AFI: /lɛd/. least is at rank #48,509, tagged as anadj.

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 66344, this pair ranks #5,030 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lead vs least

Shared letters: ael. Private to "lead": d. Private to "least": st.

"lead" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "least" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leadelad · laed · leadd · leda · llead
  • leastelast · laest · leasst · leastt · leats · lesat · lleast

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lead" for "least" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "lead" vs "least" - which ranks higher?
"lead" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,835 in our Portuguese list, against #48,509 for "least". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lead" and "least".

  • Full dictionary entry for "lead" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "least" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,030 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lead" and "least" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lean vs least". 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 #5,030 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list