retentive
/ɹɪˈtɛntɪv/
"retentive" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“retentive” is uncommon English (frequency #73,589 among 3,094 “R” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #73,589
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Having power to retain.
Corpus desk
Index EN-retentive · retentive · English
retentive · rank #73,589 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #73,589
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH retinitis
Nearest frequency peer: retinitis (+1 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 “retentive”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Rendon
Rendon
26,417 corpus weight
- reorientati…
reorientation
26,415 corpus weight
- retentive
retentive
26,412 corpus weight
- retinitis
retinitis
26,411 corpus weight
- retool
retool
26,410 corpus weight
- Riemannian
Riemannian
26,408 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “retentive” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | retentive |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɹɪˈtɛntɪv/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #73,589 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “retentive” in English
Rare enough to double-check
retentive is uncommon English at frequency #73,589 among 3,094 “R” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ɹɪˈtɛntɪv/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
retentive doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French rétentif, from Old French retentif, from Medieval Latin retentivus, from Latin retentus. The correct English form is retentive, spelled R-E-T-E-N-T-I-V-E.
Definition
- 1Having power to retain.
- 2Anal-retentive.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how retentive appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
a retentive memory
a soil that is highly retentive of rainwater
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French rétentif, from Old French retentif, from Medieval Latin retentivus, from Latin retentus.
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 "retentive", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).