habit-forming

adj

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

The verdict

“habit-forming” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Addictive; likely to cause dependence or recurrence of use.

Corpus desk

Index EN-habit-forming · habit-forming · English

habit-forming · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "H" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for habit-forming
PropertyValue
Headwordhabit-forming
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “habit-forming” in English

habit-formingsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

habit-forming is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Addictive; likely to cause dependence or recurrence of use.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for habit-forming, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is habit-forming, spelled H-A-B-I-T---F-O-R-M-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    Addictive; likely to cause dependence or recurrence of use.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Many governments prohibit the advertising of habit-forming substances to minors.

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "habit-forming"?
"habit-forming" is spelled H-A-B-I-T---F-O-R-M-I-N-G.
What does "habit-forming" mean?
As an adjective, "habit-forming" means: Addictive; likely to cause dependence or recurrence of use.
What language does "habit-forming" come from?
"habit-forming" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list