Depression or recession?
depression is a noun meaning “A state of mind producing serious, long-term lowering of enjoyment of life or…”; recession is a noun meaning “The act or an instance of receding or withdrawing”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) depression is about 5.1 times as common as recession.
What is the difference between depression and recession?
| depression | recession | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | A state of mind producing serious, long-term lowering of enjoyment of life or inability to visualize a happy future; any of several mental disorders with this… A period of low morale or unhappiness (a period of experiencing the above-mentioned state of mind) which lasts longer than several weeks and may include… | The act or an instance of receding or withdrawing A period of low temperatures that causes a reduction in species; ice age |
| Example | I used to suffer from depression, but now I'm mostly content with my life | Statisticians often define a recession as negative real GDP growth during two consecutive quarters |
| Forms | depressions | recessions |
| Pronunciation | /dɪˈpɹɛʃən/ [dɪˈpʰɹʷɛʃən] ~ [dɪˈpʰɹʷɛʃn̩] /dəˈpɹɛʃən/ | /ɹɪˈsɛʃn̩/ |
| In writing | 36 times per million words | 7.1 times per million words |
Sources: depression and recession in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of depression and recession
depression
- 1
A state of mind producing serious, long-term lowering of enjoyment of life or inability to visualize a happy future; any of several mental disorders with this state of mind as a central feature
I used to suffer from depression, but now I'm mostly content with my life
- 2
A period of low morale or unhappiness (a period of experiencing the above-mentioned state of mind) which lasts longer than several weeks and may include ideation of self-inflicted injury or suicide
- 3
An area that is lower in topography than its surroundings
- 4
An area of lowered air pressure that generally brings moist weather, sometimes promoting hurricanes and tornadoes
- 5
A period of major economic contraction
- 6
Four consecutive quarters of negative, real GDP growth (for example, this operational definition is used by the US NBER and many other writers)
The Great Depression was the worst financial event in US history
- 7
The act of lowering or pressing something down
Depression of the lever starts the machine
- 8
A lowering, in particular a reduction in a particular biological variable or the function of an organ, in contrast to elevation
recession
- 1
The act or an instance of receding or withdrawing
- 2
A period of low temperatures that causes a reduction in species; ice age
- 3
A period of reduced economic activity
Statisticians often define a recession as negative real GDP growth during two consecutive quarters
- 4
The ceremonial filing out of clergy and/or choir at the end of a church service
- 5
The act of ceding something back
- 6
A procedure in which an extraocular muscle is detached from the globe of the eye and reattached posteriorly
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, depression or recession?
depression appears 36 times per million words; recession 7.1 times per million words.
depression 36 times per million wordsrecession 7.1 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search depression vs recession?
“depression vs recession” is searched about 3,600 times a month on Google and 40 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“recession vs depression”, “depression or recession”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.