aversive
"aversive" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“aversive” is uncommon English (frequency #73,878 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #73,878
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Tending to repel; causing avoidance.
Corpus desk
Index EN-aversive · aversive · English
aversive · rank #73,878 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #73,878
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH awardee
Nearest frequency peer: awardee (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “aversive”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Atlantean
Atlantean
26,129 corpus weight
- Aurangabad
Aurangabad
26,125 corpus weight
- aversive
aversive
26,123 corpus weight
- awardee
awardee
26,122 corpus weight
- balder
balder
26,119 corpus weight
- bando
bando
26,118 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “aversive” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | aversive |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #73,878 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “aversive” in English
Rare enough to double-check
aversive is uncommon English at frequency #73,878 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Tending to repel; causing avoidance.".
aversive has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is aversive, spelled A-V-E-R-S-I-V-E.
Definition
- 1Tending to repel; causing avoidance.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how aversive appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
If it is aversive to the animal and discourages behavior, it is a punishment. If it seems aversive to you but is not aversive to the animal, then it is not an effective punishment. In fact, technically, it's not even a punishment.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "aversive", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).