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PlainSpell

elusive

UK /ɪˈl(j)uː.sɪv/adjective

elusive is spelled E-L-U-S-I-V-E: 7 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,613th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “elusive vs illusive” about 880 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, elusive means “Evading capture, comprehension or remembrance” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in elusive?

Letters7: E-L-U-S-I-V-E
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing3.0 times per million words; the 15,613th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is elusive?

Elusive appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,613th 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 elusive?

  • UK /ɪˈl(j)uː.sɪv/
  • UK [ɪˈl(j)uː.zɪv]
  • UK /iˈl(j)uː.sɪv/

Elusive 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-elusive-illusive.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Jjamesryan-elusive.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with elusive

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

elusive vs illusive880 G
allusive vs elusive720 G

Sounds like: illusive (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with elusive?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as elusive from its last stressed vowel (/usɪv/, British pronunciation):

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 elusive

  • more elusive comparative
  • most elusive superlative

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

What does elusive mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Evading capture, comprehension or remembrance.

    The elusive criminal was arrested

  2. 2

    Difficult to make precise.

  3. 3

    Rarely seen.

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

Elusive in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchévasif, insaisissable, rare (evading capture, comprehension or remembrance), ambigu, obscur (difficult to describe)
Germanflüchtig, schwer fassbar (evading capture, comprehension or remembrance), schwierig, schwer zu beschreiben (difficult to describe)
Portugueseelusivo, fugidio (evading capture, comprehension or remembrance)
Spanishelusivo, huidizo, escurridizo, esquivo, inaprensible (evading capture, comprehension or remembrance), impreciso (difficult to describe)

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 elusive come from?

From Latin elusus, past participle of eludo (“to parry a blow, to deceive”).

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

What to look up after elusive