performative
"performative" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“performative” has 18 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #45,579. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #45,579
- frequency rank, English
- 46,516
- “P” headwords
- 18
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Being enacted as it is said.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | performative |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #45,579 |
| Misspellings tracked | 18 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “performative” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 18 spelling variants around performative, anadjective. Corpus frequency is #45,579 among 46,516 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 18 likely wrong-spelling variants for performative, with forms such as "eprformative", "pefrormative", and "perfformative". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From perform + -ative. The correct English form is performative, spelled P-E-R-F-O-R-M-A-T-I-V-E.
Definition
- 1Being enacted as it is said.
- 2Insincere, inauthentic or disingenuous; done solely or largely as a performance, to produce an impression or enhance one's reputation.
Etymology
From perform + -ative.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- eprformative
- pefrormative
- perfformative
- perfomrative
- perforamtive
- performaitve
- performatiev
- performativve
- performattive
- performatvie
- performmative
- performtaive
- perforrmative
- perfromative
- perofrmative
- perrformative
- pperformative
- preformative
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of performative - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "performative"?
What does "performative" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “performative”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-E-R-F-O-R-M-A-T-I-V-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Same frequency band
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.