leavevslesteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#15,377
“leave” frequency rank
#1,051
“leste” frequency rank
16428
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leave leste
Definition permissão para deixar o posto um dos pontos cardeais, oposto ao oeste, equivalente ao lado direito

Where the eye mixes leave and leste

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. leave (CVVCV) and leste (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
leave
5 ch
leste

Visual trap between leave and leste

A purely visual mix-up. leave (/liːv/) and leste (/ˈlɛʃ.tɨ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16428, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leave is recorded at frequency rank #15,377, classified as anoun, pronounced /liːv/. leste is at rank #1,051, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɛʃ.tɨ/.

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 16428, this pair ranks #55,112 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leave vs leste

Shared letters: el. Private to "leave": av. Private to "leste": st.

"leave" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "leste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leave ← elave · laeve · leaev · leavve · levae · lleave
  • leste ← elste · leset · lesste · lestte · letse · lleste · lsete

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leave" for "leste" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/liːv/ versus /ˈlɛʃ.tɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "leave" or "leste"?
"leste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,051 in our Portuguese list, against #15,377 for "leave". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "leave" and "leste" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leave" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,112 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leave" and "leste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "least vs leave". 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 #55,112 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