ReadevsrecedeTell them apart

Quick tell: Reade is a name, recede is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Reade” is a name and “recede” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,412
“Reade” frequency rank
#41,339
“recede” frequency rank
81751
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Reade recede
Definition A surname. To move back; to retreat; to withdraw.

Letter map: Reade vs recede

Shared letters muted; letters that set Reade and recede apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. Reade runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against recede's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Reade
6 ch
recede

Part-of-speech tell for Reade / recede

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Reade is aname and recedeaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81751, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Reade is recorded at frequency rank #40,412, classified as aname. recede is at rank #41,339, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈsiːd/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 81751, this pair ranks #17,062 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Reade vs recede

Shared letters: der. Private to "Reade": a. Private to "recede": c.

"Reade" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "recede" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Reade ← erade · raede · readde · reaed · redae · rreade
  • recede ← ercede · rceede · reccede · recdee · recedde · receed · reecde · rrecede

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Reade" for "recede" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Reade" is a name and "recede" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "Reade" or "recede" show up more?
"Reade" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,412 in our English list, against #41,339 for "recede". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "Reade" and "recede". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Reade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recede" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,062 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Reade" and "recede" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recede vs reedy". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #17,062 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list