accusative
/əˈkjuːzətɪv/
"accusative" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“accusative” is an uncommon English word, ranked #52,127 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #52,127
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Producing accusations; in a manner that reflects a finding of fault or blame
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | accusative |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /əˈkjuːzətɪv/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #52,127 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “accusative” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for accusative is 10 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈkjuːzətɪv/. Corpus data places it at rank #52,127 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
accusative doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: First attested in the mid 15th century. From Middle English accusative, from Anglo-Norman accusatif or Middle French acusatif or from Latin accūsātīvus (“having been blamed”), from accūsō (“to blame”). Equivalent to accuse + -ative. The Latin form is a mist… The correct English form is accusative, spelled A-C-C-U-S-A-T-I-V-E.
Definition
- 1Producing accusations; in a manner that reflects a finding of fault or blame
- 2Applied to the case (as the fourth case of Latin, Lithuanian and Greek nouns) which expresses the immediate object on which the action or influence of a transitive verb has its limited influence. Other parts of speech, including secondary or predicate direct objects, will also influence a sentence’s construction. In German the case used for direct objects.
Etymology
First attested in the mid 15th century. From Middle English accusative, from Anglo-Norman accusatif or Middle French acusatif or from Latin accūsātīvus (“having been blamed”), from accūsō (“to blame”). Equivalent to accuse + -ative. The Latin form is a mistranslation of the Ancient Greek grammatical term αἰτιᾱτική (aitiātikḗ, “expressing an effect”). This term actually comes from αἰτιᾱτός (aitiātós, “caused”) + -ῐκός (-ĭkós, adjective suffix), but was reanalyzed as coming from αἰτιᾱ- (aitiā-), the stem of the verb αἰτιάομαι (aitiáomai, “to blame”), + -τῐκός (-tĭkós, verbal adjective suffix).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “accusative”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-C-C-U-S-A-T-I-V-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈkjuːzətɪv/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.