The correct phrase is "for all intents and purposes." It means "in every practical sense" or "in effect." "For all intensive purposes" is a mishearing, and it is wrong in writing. The phrase comes from English law: the Oxford English Dictionary's earliest example, as Grammarphobia quotes it, is from a 1546 Act of Parliament under Henry VIII, in the fuller form "to all intents, constructions, and purposes." "Intents" there means intentions or aims, and it sits next to "purposes" the way lawyers like to pair near-synonyms. "Intensive" has nothing to do with it.
Here is where the phrase came from, why so many people hear it the other way, and a quick way to keep it straight.
What "for all intents and purposes" means
It says that something is not technically true but is true in every way that matters.
- The deal isn't signed, but for all intents and purposes it's done.
- The old office is, for all intents and purposes, a storage room now.
It is not an intensifier. It softens a claim: "for all intents and purposes, the project is finished" admits there is some small loose end.
| Form | Status | Register | Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| for all intents and purposes | correct, the common modern form | neutral to formal | both US and UK |
| to all intents and purposes | correct, the older form | neutral to formal; now sounds a little more traditional | both US and UK |
| for all intensive purposes | error (an eggcorn) | avoid in writing | both |
| for all intents and purpose | error (dropped "s") | avoid | both |
Phrase Finder notes that "to all intents and purposes" was the original wording and that "for all intents and purposes" is now more widely used. Both are standard.
Where the phrase comes from
1546: the law
Grammarphobia quotes the OED's first citation, from an Act passed in the reign of Henry VIII: "To all intents, constructions, and purposes." Phrase Finder gives the same wording and date. Neither reference names which Act it was, so we don't either.
The formula did not stay in one statute. It became part of the standard language of English and colonial law. Printed statute collections are full of it: Google Books' index turns up "to all Intents, Constructions and Purposes" in an edition of The Statutes at Large printed in 1770, and "to all intents, constructions and purposes" in Edmund Baylies' A Collection of Important English Statutes of 1885, among many others. A clause declaring something valid "to all intents, constructions and purposes" meant valid in every sense the law could give it, with no loophole left.
Lawyers pile up near-synonyms to close gaps, as in "null and void" or "cease and desist." "Intents" covers what was meant; "constructions" covers how a court might interpret it; "purposes" covers what it is for. Everyday English dropped "constructions" and kept the other two.
1709: the essayists
By the early 1700s the phrase had left the courtroom. Grammarphobia quotes the OED's example from The Tatler: "Whoever resides in the World without having any Business in it … is to me a Dead Man to all Intents and Purposes." We found the line in the digitized editions that Google Books indexes. George Atherton Aitken's 1899 edition places it in Tatler No. 96, dated 19 November 1709, and Murray's New English Dictionary of 1901, the first edition of what became the OED, quotes the same sentence.
One wrinkle worth knowing: Grammarphobia credits the sentence to Joseph Addison, while several editions print the paper under Richard Steele's name. The Tatler was written mostly by Steele under the pen name Isaac Bickerstaff, with contributions from Addison, and the references we read assign this number differently. We report both rather than pick one.
Either way, the joke depends on the legal phrase. A man with no business in the world is dead "to all intents and purposes," in the same all-inclusive sense a statute would use.
Why people say "intensive purposes"
Phrase Finder calls "for all intensive purposes" one of the most persistent eggcorns and "an understandable mishearing, as the original is hardly intuitive." It reports the error in print as early as 1870, in The Fort Wayne Daily Gazette.
The mishearing is almost inevitable once you say the phrase at normal speed.
The sounds merge. In ordinary speech "intents and" loses most of its "and," and "in-TENTS-n" sits very close to "in-TEN-siv." The listener's ear does the rest.
"Intents" is a rare word. People use "intent" and "intention," but the plural "intents" hardly appears outside this phrase. "Intensive" is familiar: intensive care, intensive course. The ear reaches for the familiar word.
It seems to make sense. "Intensive purposes" sounds as though it might mean "serious purposes," which is close enough to the context that nobody stops to question it.
That last point is what makes it an eggcorn rather than a plain slip. The name comes from the linguistics blog Language Log, where in 2003 Geoffrey Pullum suggested "eggcorn" for mishearings that reshape a phrase into something that seems to explain itself, after a woman who wrote "egg corn" for "acorn." Our guide to commonly misused idioms sorts the family by error type, and the same mechanism is behind the "hone in" versus "home in" split, where the reshaped form has gone far enough that some dictionaries now accept it.
"Intensive purposes" has not had that luck. No mainstream reference we read accepts it. In writing it is an error, and readers who notice it tend to judge the writer.
How to remember the right form
Say it with the legal words back in. "To all intents, constructions, and purposes." Once you hear "intents" as a list item next to "purposes," the "intensive" version stops sounding plausible.
Swap in "intentions." "For all intentions and purposes" is not the idiom, but it tells you the missing word is a noun about meaning, not an adjective about intensity.
Try "intensive" on its own. "For all intensive purposes" would mean "for all the very intense purposes." That is not what anyone means.
Should you use it at all?
The phrase is correct, but it is also long. In many sentences it adds four words of throat-clearing to a claim that would stand on its own.
Shorter options that keep the meaning:
- in effect: The ruling, in effect, ends the case.
- essentially or practically: The work is essentially done.
- virtually: The two versions are virtually identical.
Keep the full phrase when you want its particular admission, that something is true in practice though not on paper. That is exactly the sense the lawyers built it for.
It is also worth watching for a neighbor with a similar problem. "I could care less" is a phrase heard correctly that says the reverse of its meaning, which the references treat differently from a mishearing; see the could care less vs couldn't care less page. And for how a phrase like this is traced from a statute to everyday speech, the method is set out on where idioms come from.
What is genuinely unresolved
Which 1546 Act the OED cites is not stated by the references we read.
The authorship of Tatler No. 96 is given as Addison by Grammarphobia and printed under Steele in several editions.
The 1870 date for "intensive purposes" rests on Phrase Finder alone. Earlier printed examples may exist.
Frequently asked questions
Is it "for all intents and purposes" or "for all intensive purposes"?
"For all intents and purposes." It means "in every practical sense." "For all intensive purposes" is a mishearing of the phrase and is considered an error in writing.
Where does "for all intents and purposes" come from?
From English law. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest citation, as Grammarphobia quotes it, is a 1546 Act of Parliament under Henry VIII with the wording "to all intents, constructions, and purposes." By 1709 The Tatler was using "to all intents and purposes" in ordinary prose.
Is "to all intents and purposes" also correct?
Yes. Phrase Finder notes it is the original form. "For all intents and purposes" is now the more common version, and both are standard.
Why do people say "intensive purposes"?
Because in normal speech "intents and" sounds almost like "intensive," and "intensive" is a far more familiar word than the plural "intents." Phrase Finder calls it one of the most persistent eggcorns and reports it in print as early as 1870.
