aggressive
/əˈɡɹɛs.ɪv/adjective, noun
aggressive is spelled A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E. The wrong spelling people search most is aggresive: about 330 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 12 of all searches for the word. Aggressive is an adjective meaning “Characterized by aggression; highly combative; prone to behave in a way that involves attacking (especially…”.
How many letters and syllables are in aggressive?
| Letters | 10: A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 21 times per million words; the 4,153rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, aggresive, about 330 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell aggressive?
Aggressive is spelled A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 12 of the searches for aggressive in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is aggressive?
Aggressive appears 21 times per million words in written English, the 4,153rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce aggressive?
- US /əˈɡɹɛs.ɪv/
Aggressive has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-aggressive.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with aggressive?
5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as aggressive from its last stressed vowel (/ɛsɪv/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of aggressive
- more aggressive comparative
- most aggressive superlative
- aggressives plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does aggressive mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Characterized by aggression; highly combative; prone to behave in a way that involves attacking (especially if unjustly) or arguing.
an aggressive policy, war, person, nation
- 2
Tends to attack the player while unprovoked.
Zombies are aggressive once you are near them.
- 3
Exploiting every opportunity to be applied.
The Itanium processor is an example of an Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (EPIC) architecture and thus relies on aggressive and expensive compiler optimizations for performance.
- 4
Of a tumor or disease, that spreads quickly or extensively; virulent; malignant.
- 5
Involving high risk for potentially high reward.
an aggressive stock; an aggressive portfolio
- 6
USFemale but having a male or masculine gender presentation; butch.
For quotations using this term, see Citations:aggressive.
noun
- 1
One who is aggressive.
- 2
USA (Black) woman who presents as masculine; a butch.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Aggressive in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense tending or disposed to aggress:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | agressif |
| German | aggressiv, angriffslustig |
| Portuguese | agressivo |
| Spanish | agresivo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does aggressive come from?
From aggress + -ive. Compare with French agressif.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).