probative
/ˈproʊ.bə.tɪv/
"probative" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“probative” is uncommon English (frequency #89,797 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #89,797
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Tending to prove a particular proposition or to persuade someone of the truth of an allegation.
Corpus desk
Index EN-probative · probative · English
probative · rank #89,797 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #89,797
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH Prestatyn
Nearest frequency peer: Prestatyn (-4 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “probative”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- preprocessi…
preprocessing
10,210 corpus weight
- preprocessor
preprocessor
10,209 corpus weight
- Prestatyn
Prestatyn
10,208 corpus weight
- probative
probative
10,204 corpus weight
- pronotum
pronotum
10,200 corpus weight
- proteome
proteome
10,199 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “probative” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | probative |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈproʊ.bə.tɪv/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #89,797 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “probative” in English
Rare enough to double-check
probative is uncommon English at frequency #89,797 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈproʊ.bə.tɪv/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Tending to prove a particular proposition or to persuade someone of the truth of an allegation.".
No misspelling variants are generated for probative in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is probative, spelled P-R-O-B-A-T-I-V-E.
Definition
- 1Tending to prove a particular proposition or to persuade someone of the truth of an allegation.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how probative appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The judge had granted the DA a one-week extension with the caustic admonition that the case would be summarily dismissed if at that time probative, as opposed to prejudicial, evidence was not produced.
My grandfather in person organized the file with a surfeit of sworn testimonies and probative documents […]
Antonyms
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "probative", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).