Is there anything different between "oil leakage", "oil spill" and "oil leak"? And unltimately, is spill different to leak or spill significantly?
Learn English – “spill” vs “leakage” vs “leak”
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Is there anything different between "oil leakage", "oil spill" and "oil leak"? And unltimately, is spill different to leak or spill significantly?
Best Answer
Per this NGram, an oil leakage is relatively uncommon compared to an oil leak. For most practical purposes they'll mean exactly the same thing, but personally I feel that a leakage more strongly alludes to the fluid that leaks out, whereas a leak alludes to the location from which fluid leaks out.
And an oil spillage very definitely refers to the leaked fluid itself. This usage almost always treats the leaked fluid as an environmental contaminant, where leak / leakage is usually in reference to something "lost" from its original location / function (as the lubricant in a car engine, a valuable cargo being stored / transported, etc.).
Note that spillage (less commonly, spill) is particularly likely to be used in relation to "industrial scale" accidental oil loss / escape from ocean-going transportation tankers, and things like the Deepwater Horizon oil release of 2010.