Which to use
“communication” is a noun and “communicative” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,103
- “communication” frequency rank
- #31,115
- “communicative” frequency rank
- 33218
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | communication | communicative |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act or fact of communicating anything; transmission. | Eager to communicate; talkative. |
Where the eye mixes communication and communicative
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 11 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: communication vs communicative
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: communication is /kəˌmjuː.nɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/ while communicative is /kəˈmjuː.nɪ.kə.tɪv/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33218, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
communication is recorded at frequency rank #2,103, classified as anoun, pronounced /kəˌmjuː.nɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/. communicative is at rank #31,115, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kəˈmjuː.nɪ.kə.tɪv/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 33218, this pair ranks #331,323 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of communication vs communicative
Shared letters: acimnotu. Private to "communication": -. Private to "communicative": ev.
"communication" · 13 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVCVVC · "communicative" · 13 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- communication ← ccommunication · cmomunication · commnuication · commuincation · communciation · communiaction · communicaiton · communicasion
- communicative ← ccommunicative · cmomunicative · commnuicative · commuincative · communciative · communiactive · communicaitve · communicatiev
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "communication" and "communicative" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "communication" or "communicative" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "communication" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "communicative" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #331,323 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "communication" and "communicative" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "communicating vs communicative". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #331,323 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.