reasonvsreconWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“reason” and “recon” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#479
“reason” frequency rank
#21,327
“recon” frequency rank
21806
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reason recon
Definition A cause: reconnaissance.

Where the eye mixes reason and recon

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
reason
5 ch
recon

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. reason (/ˈɹiː.zən/) and recon (/ɹɪˈkɒn/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reason is recorded at frequency rank #479, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹiː.zən/. recon is at rank #21,327, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹɪˈkɒn/.

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 21806, this pair ranks #421,230 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of reason vs recon

Shared letters: enor. Private to "reason": as. Private to "recon": c.

"reason" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "recon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reasonerason · raeson · reaosn · reasno · reasonn · reasson · resaon · rreason
  • reconercon · rceon · reccon · recno · reconn · reocn · rrecon

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "reason" and "recon" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɹiː.zən/ versus /ɹɪˈkɒn/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "reason" or "recon"?
"reason" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #479 in our English list, against #21,327 for "recon". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list