intervening
"intervening" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“intervening” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #18,860 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #18,860
- frequency rank, English
- 11
- letters
- 17
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - That intervenes or mediates.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | intervening |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #18,860 |
| Misspellings tracked | 17 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “intervening” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for intervening is 11 letters long, classified as an adjective. Corpus data places it at rank #18,860 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 17 likely wrong-spelling variants for intervening, with forms such as "inetrvening", "inntervening", and "interevning". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "interfering", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is intervening, spelled I-N-T-E-R-V-E-N-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1That intervenes or mediates.
- 2Falling between two periods or events.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: inetrvening,inntervening,interevning,interrvening,interveinng,intervenign,interveningg,interveninng,intervennig,intervenning,intervneing,intervvening,intevrening,intrevening,inttervening,itnervening,nitervening
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of intervening - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "intervening"?
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Using “intervening”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-N-T-E-R-V-E-N-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “interfering” - see the side-by-side comparison. intervening vs interfering
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.