consumptive

/kənˈsʌmptɪv/adjective, noun

consumptive is spelled C-O-N-S-U-M-P-T-I-V-E: 11 letters. It appears about once in every 9 million words in written English, the 91,522nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, consumptive means “Having a tendency to consume; dissipating; destructive; wasteful” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in consumptive?

Letters	11: C-O-N-S-U-M-P-T-I-V-E
In writing	about once in every 9 million words; the 91,522nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search

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).

How common is consumptive?

Consumptive appears about once in every 9 million words in written English, the 91,522nd most frequent word form in the list.

consumptive0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce consumptive?

/kənˈsʌmptɪv/

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-consumptive.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of consumptive

more consumptive comparative
most consumptive superlative
consumptives plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does consumptive mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

1
Having a tendency to consume; dissipating; destructive; wasteful.
2
Of or relating to consumption.
3
Relating to pulmonary tuberculosis.
consumptive cough

noun

1
A person suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis.