Lead vs. Led

Recently, I've seen some confusion over the words 'lead' and 'led.' Confusingly, the first spelling has multiple pronunciations, which is what I think is causing the problem.

Let's take a look:

Lead

Pronunciation: /lēd/

rhymes with: weed, feed, seed, bead

Verb: 3rd person present tense meaning

• to guide, command, or be in charge, [This CEO will lead our company into the next year.]

• cause, [These clues lead me to believe that it was an accident.]

• or have a certain way of being​ [You can't lead a true life without suffering. (Mahatma Ghandi)]

Noun:

• being an example or in a place ahead of others, [The red team is in the lead with five points.]

• a leash for pets, [Dogs should be kept on a lead.]

• primary role in a movie [Chris Pine played the lead as Captain Kirk.]

Pronunciation: /led/

rhymes with: bed, fed, said, wed

Noun:

• a metal that's the 82nd element on the periodic table, abbreviation Pb

• the graphite in pencils

Led

Pronunciation: /led/

rhymes with: bed, fed, said, wed

Verb: past tense of lead [Our CEO led us to the best sales quarter in company history.]

So, you see 'lead' and 'led' are actually sometimes just different conjugations of the same verb. Lead is the present tense, led is the past tense.