Which to use
“repulsion” is a noun and “repulsive” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,733
- “repulsion” frequency rank
- #23,083
- “repulsive” frequency rank
- 69816
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | repulsion | repulsive |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of repelling or the condition of being repelled. | Tending to rouse aversion or to repulse; disgusting. |
Where the eye mixes repulsion and repulsive
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: repulsion vs repulsive
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: repulsion is /ɹɪˈpʌlʃən/ while repulsive is /ɹɪˈpʌlsɪv/. 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 69816, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
repulsion is recorded at frequency rank #46,733, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹɪˈpʌlʃən/. repulsive is at rank #23,083, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɹɪˈpʌlsɪv/.
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 69816, this pair ranks #53,025 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of repulsion vs repulsive
Shared letters: eilprsu. Private to "repulsion": no. Private to "repulsive": v.
"repulsion" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC · "repulsive" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "repulsion" and "repulsive" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "repulsion" or "repulsive"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "repulsion" and "repulsive" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "repulsion" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "repulsive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #53,025 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "repulsion" and "repulsive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recursion vs repulsion". 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 #53,025 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.