conniving
/kəˈnaɪvɪŋ/
"conniving" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“conniving” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #44,706 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #44,706
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - That connives; conspiratorial.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | conniving |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /kəˈnaɪvɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #44,706 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “conniving” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for conniving is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kəˈnaɪvɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #44,706 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "That connives; conspiratorial.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for conniving, with forms such as "cconniving", "cnoniving", and "coninving". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "conceiving", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is conniving, spelled C-O-N-N-I-V-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1That connives; conspiratorial.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cconniving,cnoniving,coninving,coniving,conniivng,connivign,connivingg,connivinng,connivnig,connivving,connviing,ocnniving
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of conniving - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
How do you spell "conniving"?
What does "conniving" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "conniving"?
How do you pronounce "conniving"?
What language does "conniving" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “conniving”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-N-N-I-V-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kəˈnaɪvɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “conceiving” - see the side-by-side comparison. conniving vs conceiving
- 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.