divisiveness

noun

"divisiveness" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“divisiveness” is uncommon English (frequency #60,026 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#60,026
frequency rank, English
3,470
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The characteristic of being divisive.

Corpus desk

Index EN-divisiveness · divisiveness · English

divisiveness · rank #60,026 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #60,026
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,470
  • PHOTO-FINISH diversionary

Nearest frequency peer: diversionary (-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 “divisiveness”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “divisiveness” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for divisiveness
PropertyValue
Headworddivisiveness
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters12
Frequency rank#60,026
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “divisiveness” in English

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).divisivenessfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “diversionary” (#60,025), “DNI” (#60,027), “disincentive” (#60,024). Among 3,470 “D” headwords, “divisiveness” is #60,026. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

divisiveness is uncommon English at frequency #60,026 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The characteristic of being divisive.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for divisiveness, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From divisive + -ness. The correct English form is divisiveness, spelled D-I-V-I-S-I-V-E-N-E-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    The characteristic of being divisive.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how divisiveness appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. I realized today that the politics of divisiveness embraced by the neocons has worked, and it has worked on me.

Etymology

From divisive + -ness.

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

How do you spell "divisiveness"?
"divisiveness" is spelled D-I-V-I-S-I-V-E-N-E-S-S.
What does "divisiveness" mean?
As a noun, "divisiveness" means: The characteristic of being divisive.
What is the origin of the word "divisiveness"?
From divisive + -ness. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "divisiveness", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list