Summary: All Intents and Purposes or All Intensive Purposes? The correct phrase here is always “all intents and purposes,” meaning “in every practical sense.” And while some people say or write “all intensive purposes,” this is always a mistake!

Is it intensive purposes or intents and purposes?

While people generally use both for all intents and purposes and for all intensive purposes to mean “in every practical sense,” ”seeming as if,” or “virtually/almost completely,” the standard form of the idiom is for all intents and purposes.

What does for all intensive purposes mean?

For all intents and purposes is a phrase meaning "essentially" or "in effect." It is often mistaken as for all intensive purposes because when spoken aloud these two phrases sound very similar. These mistakes, where incorrect words and phrases are replaced but the meaning remains the same, are known as eggcorns.