What lead or what led?

The noun "lead" (rhymes with "red") refers to the metal (as in "a lead pipe"). The noun "lead" (which rhymes with "deed") refers to an initiative, an example, or a position at the front ("in the lead"). The verb "lead" and the noun "lead" are homographs: words that have the same spelling but differ in meaning and (sometimes) pronunciation.

Use the verb "lead" to indicate that someone is directing or at the front of others, as in:

To use "lead" as a noun or adjective when you mean the metal, you can craft a sentence such as:

You might also have read a sentence such as:

This sentence uses "lead" in the sense of having a position in front of.

To use "led," simply use it as the past tense or past participle for "lead," as in:

Merriam-Webster suggests that if you aren’t sure whether to write "led" or "lead" as the verb in your sentence, try reading it aloud to yourself. If the verb is pronounced "led" (with a short "e"), write "led."

To determine when to use "lead" or "led," it's simplest to first discuss the term "led," which is always either the past tense or the past participle of the verb "lead." So, you might say:

The word "lead," however, can have a number of meanings. If you want to use the word in terms of being in the front position, you might say:

This means that the Cubs are, at present, ahead of their opponents. Up to this point in the game, they have scored more runs. You can also use "lead" in the same sentence in a couple of different ways:

In this sentence, the first use of "lead" (rhymes with "head") refers to the metal, which has been found to have many unhealthful properties. In the second use, "lead" (rhymes with "bead") means to tend toward or to have a result.

John Emsley, in "The Elements of Murder," uses both "lead" and "led" in the same sentence and adjacent to each other:

In this case, Emsley uses "lead" referring to the metal, and "led" as the past tense of "lead." You can also use "lead" in a few other ways, including:

In this use, "lead" means to guide or cause a person to get into trouble. You can also say: "The runner was in the 'lead' for most of the race," meaning the runner was in front of his competitors, or, "He took the 'lead' in fighting the measure," indicating that he directed the fight against the measure. By contrast, if you say, "His 'lead' was the ace of spades," you are saying that he played that particular card first.

A few memory tricks can help you keep the various meanings straight. You might remember:

Or you might try another memory trick like:

This may help you remember that "lead," meaning a leadership position, is pronounced with a long "e," while "led" as the past tense of "lead," as well as "lead" the metal, is pronounced with a short "e."

"Lead" has a myriad of other uses. It can mean a clue, as in:

In this case, it's often used as a plural. "Lead" can also be used as an idiom, as in:

Of course, a human being does not have a foot made of "lead." Rather, "lead" is a heavy metal, so the idiom is using the term to indicate that the person has a tendency to step on the gas pedal too hard and drive too fast. Some dictionaries even list the term "leadfoot," meaning a person who drives too fast, as in:

In this use, clearly Joe does not have a "leadfoot" or a "lead-foot"—that is, a foot that simply weighs more than the average foot and therefore pushes harder on the gas pedal. Instead, Joe chooses to disobey the law, put the pedal to the metal (fully depress the gas pedal), and drive much faster than the posted speed limit, possibly "leading" to speeding tickets and other moving violations.

Led is the past tense of the verb lead (pronounced leed), which means to guide, direct, be in charge, or to bring something about:

By the way, if you see the word led written in uppercase letters—LED—that’s an acronym that stands for “light emitting diode,” which is, as its name suggests, a diode that emits light.

Lead is also the name of a certain type of metal. However, when it’s used for the metal, the word lead is pronounced just like led, which adds to the confusion:

The soft core of a pencil is also sometimes referred to as lead, even though it’s made out of graphite and doesn’t usually contain lead:

“As she led us up four flights of narrow stairs, she mentioned that the building was nine hundred years old, so we should watch our heads.” —Beth Jusino, Walking to the End of the World

The past tense of the verb lead is led, not lead. One reason for the confusion might be that the infinitive and past tense forms of a similar verb, read, are spelled the same way: read. But with lead, that's not how things are. Led is the correct way to spell the past tense of lead.

• I led the horse to water. ( past tense)
• I lead the horse to water. ( present tense)

The verb to lead /li:d/ means to go in a particular direction or show somebody the right way.

This door leads to the laboratory. The receptions will lead the guests to the meeting room.

The past tense and participle forms of lead is led /led/.

The guide led us to the top of the mountain. The success of his company has led him to invest in new enterprises.

As a noun, lead can mean two things:

1. a position ahead of others, or an example for people to copy. It is pronounced /li:d/.

The Republicans are now in the lead. He took the lead, and others followed.

2. a soft metal (Norwegian bly).  It is pronounced /led/.

Old houses have lead pipes.

One letter can make a lot of difference. Led and lead aren’t that different, but they can still be confusing.

Lead can also have physical, political, or social connotations. Read on to look at some examples and find out how to use lead and led in a sentence.

In simple terms, led is the past tense of lead.

The main difference between the two words is the the former (led) happened before now (past tense) and the latter (lead) is happening now (present tense).

However, there is one more definition of lead that confuses things a little.

There are two primary definitions of the word lead. Lead can be a noun, a verb, or an adjective.

Each definition is pronounced differently:

Lead (rhymes with bread) only has one correct usage, and that is as a noun referring to a metallic element.

As a result, we will only be looking at definition 1 of lead, which can be a noun, verb, or adjective. Let’s take a look at how it works as each part of speech.

A verb is a word that describes an activity or a state of being. The verb lead describes the action of "leading."

Here are some definitions of lead as a verb:

Example: Haresh leads this organization from his sofa.

Example: They lead a secluded life in the Arctic.

A noun is used to describe a person, a place, or a thing. When lead is used as a noun it describes a specific place or position, or an item.

Example: I was in the lead until Marcy overtook me less than a mile from the finish.

Example: We have got a new lead on the double homicide case.

An adjective is a word that gives an attribute to a noun. When lead is used as an adjective, it describes the most important thing.

Example: She just got appointed as the lead chef at the restaurant.

In 2022, I will be launching my all-new pillow brand. Let me tell you what led me to this decision, with some correct examples of lead in a sentence.

Knowing when to use lead or led in a sentence can be tricky, but ProWritingAid’s Realtime Report can help. Take a look at the advert for my pillow company below—I’ve made a variety of mistakes in my writing:

Would you trust me to have made the best pillow in the world? Not with that grammar! Great spelling and grammar is important to build trust with prospective customers.

ProWritingAid helps you become a better writer by catching errors you may miss on your own.

Try the Realtime Report with a free ProWritingAid account.

You will be happy to know that, unlike lead, led only has one primary definition.

Led is the past tense and past participle of lead.

This means that led is used to explain an activity or a state of being that occurred in the past.

Example: The dog led its owner to the treat stand.

The past participle of the verb lead is always spelled led—no need to worry about different forms or word endings.

Examples:

So, now you have been led through most of the definitions, I will lead you through some examples using the word led in a sentence.

The cheeky final example includes both past and present tense forms of lead. The first instance talks about the act of leading a seminar, so it is in the present tense. The second talks about Ophelia having led the seminar previously, so it is in the past tense.

Yes, LED is different to led.

Unless you led a group of tourists around the LED museum last week, these definitions should be easy for you to keep separate.

Although it is unlikely that you will get these dissimilar terms confused, it is still worth putting them into context.

This is a bonus section with some other word that use lead as their base.

To summarize: although a leader should lead people, they do not necessarily have good leadership qualities. Think of a boss who runs the business from the top but does not help any of his colleagues. He is the leader who is leading, but he does not have leadership qualities.

Can you use both words correctly every time?

The best way to remember the difference is to practice using both words in a sentence.

Test your knowledge of led vs lead with these 10 questions. Fill in the blanks with led, LED, lead, or leads.

1) Led

2) Lead (the metal, rhymes with bread)

3) Leads (the verb, rhymes with needs)

4) LED

5) Lead (the metal, rhymes with bread)

6) Led

7) Led

8) Lead (the verb, rhymes with need)

9) Led

10) Led , Lead (the verb, rhymes with need)

In this article, we’ll lead you through the differences between lead and led, explain why lead is considered an irregular verb, and give examples of how lead and led are used in sentences.

As an irregular verb, lead (pronounced ) has many different meanings, including very commonly used senses such as “to show the way,” “to guide,” “to cause,” “to bring,” “to command,” and “to have top position or first place in.”

For example:

When used this way, lead is considered an irregular verb because its past tense and past participle form is led (not leaded).

For example:

Lead can also be used as a noun with many different meanings relating to people or things being in a foremost position. For these senses, it’s pronounced .

Which should you use, burnt or burned?

The confusion around the words lead and led is likely due to the fact that lead is also used as a noun in the sense of the metal. This sense of lead is pronounced identically to led, which can be especially confusing in speech when you can’t see the different spellings.

There is also a much less commonly used verb sense of lead (pronounced ) that relates to using the metal lead in some way, such as by treating them with it or adding it to them. This sense is a regular verb—the past tense and past participle form is leaded.

You can avoid some confusion by remembering that the word led is only ever used as the past tense or past participle of lead.

Another verb that can follow the same pattern as the irregular verb lead is plead. However, plead can use pled or pleaded as its past tense and past participle form.

Are you guilty of not knowing whether to use pled or pleaded? Find out with our guide.

The irregular verb read (pronounced ) changes pronunciation for its past tense and past participle form, but not spelling: it continues to be spelled read, but it’s pronounced .

Although it’s spelled slightly differently, the irregular verb lead follows a conjugation pattern similar to a number of irregular verbs that end in -eed and rhyme with it. These change in both spelling and pronunciation for their past tense and past participle forms.

For example:

Let’s look at some example sentences that show the different ways that lead and led are used.