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PlainSpell

recall

re·call/ɹɪˈkɔl/verb, noun

recall is spelled R-E-C-A-L-L, 2 syllables: re·call. The wrong spelling people search most is reacll: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 2,000 of all searches for the word. Recall is a verb meaning “To withdraw, retract (one's words etc.); to revoke (an order)”.

How do you spell recall?

Recall is spelled R-E-C-A-L-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 2,071 of the searches for recall in either form.

recallthe right spelling20,700 searches a month
reacllc and a swapped10 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

What does recall mean?

verb

  1. 1

    To withdraw, retract (one's words etc.); to revoke (an order).

  2. 2

    To call back, bring back, or summon (someone) to a specific place, station, etc.

    He was recalled to service after his retirement.

  3. 3

    USTo remove an elected official through a petition and direct vote.

  4. 4

    To bring back (someone) to or from a particular mental or physical state, activity etc.

  5. 5

    To call back (a situation, event, etc.) to one's mind; to remember; to recollect.

  6. 6

    To hearken back to, evoke; to be reminiscent of.

  7. 7

    To call again; to call another time.

  8. 8

    To request or order the return of (a faulty product).

noun

  1. 1

    Request of the return of a faulty product.

    recall campaign

  2. 2

    USThe right or procedure by which a public official may be removed from office before the end of their term of office, by a vote of the people to be taken on the filing of a petition signed by a required number or percentage of qualified voters.

    recall petition

  3. 3

    USThe right or procedure by which the decision of a court may be directly reversed or annulled by popular vote, as was advocated, in 1912, in the platform of the Progressive Party for certain cases involving the police power of the state.

  4. 4

    Memory; the ability to remember.

  5. 5

    The fraction of (all) relevant material that is returned by a search.

    precision and recall

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce recall?

  • UK /ɹɪˈkɔːl/
  • US /ɹɪˈkɔl/
  • US /ɹiˈkɔl/

As a noun (“Request of the return of a faulty product”): /ˈɹiːkɔːl/, /ˈɹiˌkɔl/, /ɹiˈkɔl/.

Recall has 2 syllables, split re·call in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-recall_(verb).wav, En-us-recall.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of recall

  • recalls present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • recalling participle, present
  • recalled participle, past
  • re-call

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is recall?

Recall appears 25 times per million words in written English, the 3,612th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Words people confuse with recall

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

re-call vs recall0 B

Also written: re-call (one word or two).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Recall in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchrappeler (to call (someone) back to a specific place…), se souvenir, se rappeler, se remémorer (to remember, recollect)
Germanzurückrufen (to call (someone) back to a specific place…), sich erinnern, sich entsinnen, gedenken, abrufen (to remember, recollect), Rückruf (product recall)
Portuguesereconvocar (to call (someone) back to a specific place…), lembrar, recordar (to remember, recollect), recall (product recall), convocar (to order the return of (faulty product))
Spanishremembrar, tener / hacer memoria de (to remember, recollect), retirada (product recall), retirar (to order the return of (faulty product)), recordación, rememoración (memory)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does recall come from?

From re- + call, probably modelled on Latin revocāre, French rappeler, English withcall.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).