intermissive

adj

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

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Having temporary cessations; not continual; intermittent.

Corpus desk

Index EN-intermissive · intermissive · English

intermissive · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 12 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 intermissive
PropertyValue
Headwordintermissive
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “intermissive” in English

intermissivefalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Rare enough to double-check

intermissive is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Having temporary cessations; not continual; intermittent.".

intermissive has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is intermissive, spelled I-N-T-E-R-M-I-S-S-I-V-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Having temporary cessations; not continual; intermittent.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Wounds I vvill lend the French, inſtead of eyes, / To vveep their intermiſſive miſeries.
  2. I […] reduc'd Ireland, after ſo many intermiſsive VVars, to ſuch a perfect paſſe of obedience; […]

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 "intermissive"?
"intermissive" is spelled I-N-T-E-R-M-I-S-S-I-V-E.
What does "intermissive" mean?
As an adjective, "intermissive" means: Having temporary cessations; not continual; intermittent.
What language does "intermissive" come from?
"intermissive" 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