sedative
/ˈsɛdətɪv/
"sedative" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sedative” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #29,453. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #29,453
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An agent or drug that sedates, having a calming or soothing effect, or inducing sleep.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sedative · sedative · English
sedative · rank #29,453 · 11 variants · 3 confusables
- FREQ-MID #29,453
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
- VAR-MID 11 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH scouring
Nearest frequency peer: scouring (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “sedative”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- SARS
SARS
70,551 corpus weight
- scouring
scouring
70,549 corpus weight
- sedative
sedative
70,548 corpus weight
- senile
senile
70,547 corpus weight
- setter
setter
70,546 corpus weight
- sheesh
sheesh
70,545 corpus weight
What this shows “sedative” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “sedative”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 11 spelling variants around sedative (IPA /ˈsɛdətɪv/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #29,453 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sedative", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).