tempestive

adj

"tempestive" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“tempestive” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - seasonable; timely

Corpus desk

Index EN-tempestive · tempestive · English

tempestive · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "T" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for tempestive
PropertyValue
Headwordtempestive
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “tempestive” in English

tempestiveranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

tempestive is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "seasonable; timely".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for tempestive, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin tempestivus. The correct English form is tempestive, spelled T-E-M-P-E-S-T-I-V-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    seasonable; timely

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how tempestive appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Neither obscured from the comfortable beams of the sun, nor covered from the cheerful and tempestive showers of heaven.

Etymology

From Latin tempestivus.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "tempestive"?
"tempestive" is spelled T-E-M-P-E-S-T-I-V-E.
What does "tempestive" mean?
As an adjective, "tempestive" means: seasonable; timely
What is the origin of the word "tempestive"?
From Latin tempestivus. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list