resistive
"resistive" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“resistive” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #46,734 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #46,734
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Tending to resist something or someone; resistant.
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 | resistive |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #46,734 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “resistive” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for resistive is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective. Corpus data places it at rank #46,734 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for resistive, with forms such as "ersistive", "reisstive", and "resisitve". 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. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "resisting", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From resist + -ive. The correct English form is resistive, spelled R-E-S-I-S-T-I-V-E.
Definition
- 1Tending to resist something or someone; resistant.
- 2Acting as a resistor; resisting the passage of electrical current.
- 3Of an electronic circuit: consisting only of resistors and power sources; having no inductance and capacitance.
Etymology
From resist + -ive.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ersistive,reisstive,resisitve,resisstive,resistiev,resistivve,resisttive,resistvie,resitsive,ressistive,ressitive,rresistive,rseistive
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of resistive - 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
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What does "resistive" mean?
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Using “resistive”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-E-S-I-S-T-I-V-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “resisting” - see the side-by-side comparison. resistive vs resisting
- 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.