comprehensive
com·pre·hen·sive/ˌkɑm.pɹəˈhɛn.sɪv/adjective, noun
comprehensive is spelled C-O-M-P-R-E-H-E-N-S-I-V-E, 4 syllables: com·pre·hen·sive. The wrong spelling people search most is comphrehensive: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 286 of all searches for the word. Comprehensive is an adjective meaning “Broadly or completely covering; including a large proportion of something”.
How many letters and syllables are in comprehensive?
| Letters | 13: C-O-M-P-R-E-H-E-N-S-I-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: com·pre·hen·sive |
| In writing | 23 times per million words; the 3,875th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, comphrehensive, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 comprehensive?
Comprehensive is spelled C-O-M-P-R-E-H-E-N-S-I-V-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 288 of the searches for comprehensive 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 comprehensive?
Comprehensive appears 23 times per million words in written English, the 3,875th 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 comprehensive?
- UK /ˌkɒm.pɹɪˈhɛn.sɪv/
- US /ˌkɑm.pɹəˈhɛn.sɪv/
Comprehensive has 4 syllables, split com·pre·hen·sive in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-comprehensive.ogg, En-au-comprehensive.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with comprehensive?
7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as comprehensive from its last stressed vowel (/ɛnsɪv/):
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 comprehensive
- more comprehensive comparative
- most comprehensive superlative
- comprehensives plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does comprehensive mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Broadly or completely covering; including a large proportion of something.
When there are diametrically opposing views on a big issue that concerns millions of people, doing comprehensive research just makes sense.
noun
- 1
UKA comprehensive school.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Comprehensive in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense broadly or completely covering:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | complet, exhaustif |
| German | umfassend, umfangreich |
| Portuguese | abrangente |
| Spanish | abarcativo, abarcador, englobante, completo, exhaustivo, comprensivo |
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 comprehensive come from?
Borrowed from late Middle French compréhensif, from Late Latin comprehēnsīvus, from Latin comprehendō.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).