A leading question is when the question suggests the desired answer. "Did he hit you with a shovel?" A loaded question means any yes or no answer would incriminate the responder. "Have you stopped beating your wife?"

A loaded question is one that has more meaning that is directly said. If a parent asked their child- "Where were you last night?" on paper this is a simple question. In reality it probably has an assumption behind it that the kid was up to no good. A loaded question asks more than is directly said, making it "loaded." A leading question is one that allows you to ask another, thereby leading a follow up. Almost like a trap I could say- "Do you have any plans tonight?" "No." "Well would you like to grab dinner." Here you wanted to ask if they wanted to go to dinner but you asked if they were available first. Making it a leading question. Very complex stuff!

In a legal context, there are rules about leading questions. As others pointed out, a leading question is one which suggests an specific answer to support a case or defense, and in the legal context, it is also one which challenges someone's answer. I'll give an example: "You ignored the stop sign, didn't you?" <-- suggests the answer & supports the attorney's case. In common-law jurisdictions, this kind of question is sometimes not allowed. This is because the question might manipulate the witness, or might influence the jury. In the United States, this comes under Federal Rule of Evidence 611(c). They are not allowed under "direct examination" (when interviewing a "friendly witness" who has been called to support the attorney's case). But they are allowed under "cross examination" (where the witness has been called to court by the opposite side) and also when asked of "hostile witnesses" (a witness who might not have been called by the opposite side, but who is uncooperative in some way to the attorney's side). And they are always allowed when asking for basic information that does not support either side (such as, "your name is John Smith, right?"

So I agree with the explanations of leading questions. However, I understand a loaded question to be "loaded" on the answer side of things, not the question. So using the first posters example of a parent asking a child "where were you last night?" I don't consider the parent as having an assumption behind their question. I would give the example that it would be a loaded question because the child could respond in a number of ways, possibly in a controversial way. To give a better example of how I understand a loaded question would be this: "do you think people should own guns?" With a response like so: "well, do you mean EVERYONE own a gun? Are these people trained, are some of them mentally ill? What kind of guns are we talking about and what people are we taking about?" The response would usually likely include the respondant as stating "thats a loaded question, because..." Basically I feel like a loaded question is one that could incite a lot of different answers that perhaps the asker wasn't expecting.