inductivevsintuitiveWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“inductive” and “intuitive” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#32,859
“inductive” frequency rank
#13,543
“intuitive” frequency rank
46402
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inductive intuitive
Definition Of, or relating to logical induction, by generalizing a universal claim or principle from the observed particular instances. Spontaneous, without requiring conscious thought.

Where the eye mixes inductive and intuitive

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
inductive
9 ch
intuitive

Visual trap between inductive and intuitive

A purely visual mix-up. inductive (/ɪnˈdʌktɪv/) and intuitive (/ɪnˈtjuːɪtɪv/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46402, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inductive is recorded at frequency rank #32,859, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪnˈdʌktɪv/. intuitive is at rank #13,543, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɪnˈtjuːɪtɪv/.

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 46402, this pair ranks #212,085 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of inductive vs intuitive

Shared letters: eintuv. Private to "inductive": cd. Private to "intuitive": -.

"inductive" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV  ·  "intuitive" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • inductiveidnuctive · indcutive · indductive · inducctive · inducitve · inductiev · inductivve · inducttive
  • intuitiveinntuitive · intiutive · inttuitive · intuiitve · intuitiev · intuitivve · intuittive · intuitvie

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "inductive" for "intuitive" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɪnˈdʌktɪv/ versus /ɪnˈtjuːɪtɪv/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "inductive" or "intuitive"?
"intuitive" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,543 in our English list, against #32,859 for "inductive". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "inductive" and "intuitive" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "inductive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intuitive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #212,085 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "inductive" and "intuitive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indicative vs inductive". 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 #212,085 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list