distinctive
/dɪˈstɪŋktɪv/adjective, noun
distinctive is spelled D-I-S-T-I-N-C-T-I-V-E. The wrong spelling people search most is disctinctive: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 97 of all searches for the word. Distinctive is an adjective meaning “Distinguishing, used to or enabling the distinguishing of some thing”.
How many letters and syllables are in distinctive?
| Letters | 11: D-I-S-T-I-N-C-T-I-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 10 times per million words; the 7,121st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, disctinctive, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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).
How do you spell distinctive?
Distinctive is spelled D-I-S-T-I-N-C-T-I-V-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 97 of the searches for distinctive 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 distinctive?
Distinctive appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 7,121st 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 distinctive?
- /dɪˈstɪŋktɪv/
Distinctive 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-distinctive.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of distinctive
- more distinctive comparative
- most distinctive superlative
- distinctives plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does distinctive mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Distinguishing, used to or enabling the distinguishing of some thing.
a product in distinctive packaging
- 2
rareDiscriminating, discerning, having the ability to distinguish between things.
- 3
Characteristic, typical.
his distinctive bass voice
- 4
rareDistinguished, being distinct in character or position.
- 5
Used to separate clauses in place of stops.
- 6
Distinguishing a particular sense of word.
noun
- 1
A distinctive thing: a quality or property permitting distinguishing; a characteristic.
- 2
A distinctive accent.
- 3
A distinctive belief, tenet, or dogma of a denomination or sect.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Distinctive in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | distinctif |
| German | unverkennbar , kennzeichnend, charakteristisch, unverwechselbar, ausgeprägt |
| Spanish | distintivo, definitorio, característico |
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 distinctive come from?
From Latin distinctus, perfect passive participle of distinguere (to push apart, to divide; see distinct) + -ive (forming adjectives signifying relation or tendency to). Cognate with French distinctif and Medieval Latin distinctivus.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).