intensive
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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9 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "intensive", 9-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "intensive" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "intensive" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
intensive is anEnglishadj. It means: Done with intensity or to a great degree; thorough. Pronounced /ɪnˈtɛnsɪv/. It ranks #6,485 in English word frequency. Often confused with intrusive and inventive.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | intensive |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /ɪnˈtɛnsɪv/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #6,485 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for intensive is 9 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪnˈtɛnsɪv/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,485 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 13 documented wrong-spelling variants for intensive, with forms such as "inetnsive", "inntensive", and "intenisve". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "intrusive", "inventive", "intensively", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The adjective is derived from Late Middle English intensive (“fervent, great, intense”), borrowed from Old French intensif, intensive (modern French intensif) + Middle English -ive (suffix meaning ‘of the nature of, relating to’ forming adjectives), equival… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is intensive, spelled I-N-T-E-N-S-I-V-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Done with intensity or to a great degree; thorough.
- 2Being made more intense.
- 3Making something more intense; intensifying.
- 4Making something more intense; intensifying.
- 5Involving much activity in a short period of time; highly concentrated.
- 6Of or pertaining to innate or internal intensity or strength rather than outward extent.
- 7Chiefly suffixed to a noun: using something with intensity; requiring a great amount of something; demanding.
- 8Chiefly suffixed to a noun: using something with intensity; requiring a great amount of something; demanding.
- 9That can be intensified; allowing an increase of degree.
- 10Synonym of intense (“extreme or very high or strong in degree; of feelings, thoughts, etc.: strongly focused”).
Etymology
The adjective is derived from Late Middle English intensive (“fervent, great, intense”), borrowed from Old French intensif, intensive (modern French intensif) + Middle English -ive (suffix meaning ‘of the nature of, relating to’ forming adjectives), equivalent to intense + -ive. Intensif is from Medieval Latin intēnsīvus, from Latin intēnsus (“attentive; eager, intent; intensive”) + -īvus (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘doing; related to doing’); and intēnsus is the perfect passive participle of intendō (“to stretch out, strain”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘to, towards’) + tendō (“to extend, stretch, stretch out”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tend- (“to extend, stretch”)). Doublet of intend. The noun is derived from the adjective.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: inetnsive,inntensive,intenisve,intennsive,intensiev,intensivve,intenssive,intensvie,intesnive,intnesive,inttensive,itnensive,nitensive
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for intensive
Misspelling Variants of "intensive"
Frequency rank: #6,485 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter I in our English index: