sedative
/ˈsɛdətɪv/
"sedative" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sedative” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #29,453 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #29,453
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An agent or drug that sedates, having a calming or soothing effect, or inducing sleep.
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 | sedative |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɛdətɪv/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #29,453 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sedative” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sedative is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsɛdətɪv/. Corpus data places it at rank #29,453 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "An agent or drug that sedates, having a calming or soothing effect, or inducing sleep.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for sedative, with forms such as "esdative", "sdeative", and "seadtive". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "seductive", "sedate", "sedation", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English sedatif, from Anglo-Norman sedatif, from Medieval Latin sēdātīvus, which itself likely influenced the modern spelling. The correct English form is sedative, spelled S-E-D-A-T-I-V-E.
Definition
- 1An agent or drug that sedates, having a calming or soothing effect, or inducing sleep.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English sedatif, from Anglo-Norman sedatif, from Medieval Latin sēdātīvus, which itself likely influenced the modern spelling.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: esdative,sdeative,seadtive,sedaitve,sedatiev,sedativve,sedattive,sedatvie,seddative,sedtaive,ssedative
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sedative - 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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Using “sedative”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-E-D-A-T-I-V-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsɛdətɪv/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “seductive” - see the side-by-side comparison. sedative vs seductive
- 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.