perceptive
/pəˈsɛptɪv/
"perceptive" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“perceptive” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #29,414 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #29,414
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 15
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Having or showing keenness or sharpness of perception, insight, understanding, or intuition.
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 | perceptive |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /pəˈsɛptɪv/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #29,414 |
| Misspellings tracked | 15 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “perceptive” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for perceptive is 10 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pəˈsɛptɪv/. Corpus data places it at rank #29,414 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Having or showing keenness or sharpness of perception, insight, understanding, or intuition.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for perceptive, with forms such as "eprceptive", "pecreptive", and "percceptive". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "perceive", "perception", "percentile", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
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 perceptive, spelled P-E-R-C-E-P-T-I-V-E.
Definition
- 1Having or showing keenness or sharpness of perception, insight, understanding, or intuition.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eprceptive,pecreptive,percceptive,percepitve,percepptive,perceptiev,perceptivve,percepttive,perceptvie,percetpive,percpetive,perecptive,perrceptive,pperceptive,preceptive
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of perceptive - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
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Using “perceptive”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-E-R-C-E-P-T-I-V-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /pəˈsɛptɪv/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “perceive” - see the side-by-side comparison. perceptive vs perceive
- 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.