Which to use
“rec” is a noun and “recur” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,666
- “rec” frequency rank
- #44,442
- “recur” frequency rank
- 57108
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rec | recur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Clipping of recreation. | Of an event, situation, etc.: to appear or happen again, especially repeatedly. |
Where the eye mixes rec and recur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rec is /ɹɛk/ while recur is /ɹɪˈkɜː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “rec” sits inside “recur”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57108, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rec is recorded at frequency rank #12,666, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹɛk/. recur is at rank #44,442, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈkɜː/.
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 57108, this pair ranks #121,557 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of rec vs recur
Shared letters: cer. Private to "rec": -. Private to "recur": u.
"rec" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "recur" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- recur ← ercur · rceur · reccur · recru · recurr · reucr · rrecur