individual
/ɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒʊəl/noun, adjective
individual is spelled I-N-D-I-V-I-D-U-A-L. The wrong spelling people search most is indivdual: about 50 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 115 of all searches for the word. Individual is a noun meaning “A person considered alone, rather than as belonging to a group of people”. The plural of individual is individuals.
How many letters and syllables are in individual?
| Letters | 10: I-N-D-I-V-I-D-U-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 5 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 100 times per million words; the 1,076th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, indivdual, about 50 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 individual?
Individual is spelled I-N-D-I-V-I-D-U-A-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 115 of the searches for individual 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 individual?
Individual appears 100 times per million words in written English, the 1,076th 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 individual?
- /ɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒʊəl/
- /ɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒʊl/
- /ɪndɪˈvɪdjʊəl/
Individual has 5 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-individual.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of individual
- individuals plural
- more individual comparative
- most individual superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does individual mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A person considered alone, rather than as belonging to a group of people.
He is an unusual individual.
- 2
A single physical human being as a legal subject, as opposed to a legal person such as a corporation.
- 3
An object, be it a thing or an agent, as contrasted to a class.
- 4
An element belonging to a population.
adjective
- 1
Relating to a single person or thing as opposed to more than one.
Near-synonyms: individuated, solitary, self-standing, freestanding
- 2
Intended for a single person as opposed to more than one person.
individual personal pension
- 3
Not divisible without losing its identity.
Near-synonyms: unatomizable, indivisible, undividable
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate individual?
Wiktionary records 3 abbreviations of individual: MCI, indiv, indiv..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Individual in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | individu , individuel |
| German | Individuum , einzeln, individuell, Einzel- |
| Portuguese | indivíduo , individual |
| Spanish | individuo , individual , propio, personal, personal |
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 individual come from?
From Medieval Latin indīviduālis, from Latin indīviduum (“an indivisible thing”), neuter of indīviduus (“indivisible, undivided”), from in + dīviduus (“divisible”), from dīvidō (“divide”). Displaced native Old English hād (“person, individual”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).