Which to use
“materialist” is a noun and “materialistic” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,608
- “materialist” frequency rank
- #29,366
- “materialistic” frequency rank
- 75974
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | materialist | materialistic |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Someone who is materialistic, concerned only with material possessions. | Being overly concerned with material possessions and wealth. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set materialist and materialistic apart are highlighted. They share 11 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
materialist and materialistic form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “materialist” sits inside “materialistic” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75974, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
materialist is recorded at frequency rank #46,608, classified as anoun, pronounced /məˈtiːɹɪəlɪst/. materialistic is at rank #29,366, tagged as anadj, pronounced /məˌtɪəɹ.i.əˈlɪs.tɪk/.
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 75974, this pair ranks #31,483 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "materialist" and "materialistic" be used interchangeably?
Remembering materialist vs materialistic
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “materialist”; for an adjective, it's “materialistic”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “materialist” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable