Which to use
“obsession” is a noun and “obsessive” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,324
- “obsession” frequency rank
- #16,548
- “obsessive” frequency rank
- 24872
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | obsession | obsessive |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The quality of being obsessed. | Prone to cause obsession. |
Where the eye mixes obsession and obsessive
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: obsession vs obsessive
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: obsession is /əbˈsɛʃən/ while obsessive is /əbˈsɛs.ɪv/. 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 24872, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
obsession is recorded at frequency rank #8,324, classified as anoun, pronounced /əbˈsɛʃən/. obsessive is at rank #16,548, tagged as anadj, pronounced /əbˈsɛs.ɪv/.
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 24872, this pair ranks #398,690 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of obsession vs obsessive
Shared letters: beios. Private to "obsession": n. Private to "obsessive": v.
"obsession" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC · "obsessive" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "obsession" and "obsessive" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "obsession" or "obsessive" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "obsession" and "obsessive" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "obsession" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "obsessive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #398,690 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "obsession" and "obsessive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "obsessive vs obsessively". 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 #398,690 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.