infinitival

adj

"infinitival" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of, pertaining to, or formed from an infinitive.

Corpus desk

Index EN-infinitival · infinitival · English

infinitival · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "I" 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 infinitival
PropertyValue
Headwordinfinitival
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “infinitival” in English

infinitivalsits 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

infinitival is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

infinitival has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From infinitive + -al. The correct English form is infinitival, spelled I-N-F-I-N-I-T-I-V-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Of, pertaining to, or formed from an infinitive.
  2. 2
    Having a function or usage similar to an infinitive.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. For example, we want to be able to stipulate in the lexical entry for persuade simply that it takes an NP and a clausal Complement ([...]). From the meaning of persuade, it will follow that the clausal Complement cannot be interrogative or exclamative. From independent word-order restrictions (an NP Complement must be positioned immediately adjacent to it…

Etymology

From infinitive + -al.

Antonyms

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 "infinitival"?
"infinitival" is spelled I-N-F-I-N-I-T-I-V-A-L.
What does "infinitival" mean?
As an adjective, "infinitival" means: Of, pertaining to, or formed from an infinitive.
What is the origin of the word "infinitival"?
From infinitive + -al. 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list