Leading to confusion

December 5th, 2008 at 07:00am Barry Wood

From a story about a design competition: “All but two of the entries were lead by Americans.”

This one involves more than one layer of confusion. The correct word is “led.”

The homonym “lead” is one of the elements of the periodic table and a heavy metal. This “lead” and “led” rhyme with “head.”

“Led” is the past tense and past participle of the verb “lead,” which rhymes with “need.” Whoever invented this word could have saved us all a bunch of trouble by spelling it “leed.”

As it is, it’s far too easy to be misled.

Entry Filed under: homonyms, word choices