sexual
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "sexual", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "sexual" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "sexual" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
sexual is anEnglishadj. It means: Arising from the fact of being male or female; pertaining to sex or gender, or to the social relations between the sexes. Pronounced /sɛk.ʃuː.əl/. It ranks #1,617 in English word frequency. Often confused with sexually and seal.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sexual |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /sɛk.ʃuː.əl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,617 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sexual is 6 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sɛk.ʃuː.əl/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,617 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for sexual, with forms such as "esxual", "seuxal", and "sexaul". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "sexually", "seal", "Seoul", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sek-der. Proto-Indo-European *séksusder. Proto-Italic *seksus Latin sexus Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin sexuālisbor. English sexual From Latin sexuālis, from sexus (“sex”), equivalent to sex + -ual. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is sexual, spelled S-E-X-U-A-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Arising from the fact of being male or female; pertaining to sex or gender, or to the social relations between the sexes.
- 2Capable of sexual reproduction; sexed, sexuate.
- 3Pertaining to sexual intercourse or other intimate physical contact.
- 4Characterised by sexual feelings or behaviour; possessing sexuality.
- 5Pertaining to sexuality as a cultural phenomenon; relating to sexual behaviour or conduct.
- 6Experiencing sexual attraction; not asexual.
- 7Pertaining to the female sex.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sek-der. Proto-Indo-European *séksusder. Proto-Italic *seksus Latin sexus Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin sexuālisbor. English sexual From Latin sexuālis, from sexus (“sex”), equivalent to sex + -ual.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: esxual,seuxal,sexaul,sexuall,sexula,sexxual,ssexual,sxeual
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for sexual
Misspelling Variants of "sexual"
Frequency rank: #1,617 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: