receivevsRecifeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,496
“receive” frequency rank
#43,330
“Recife” frequency rank
44826
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature receive Recife
Definition To be given, sent, or paid something. A municipality, the state capital of Pernambuco, Brazil.

Where the eye mixes receive and Recife

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
receive
6 ch
Recife

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: receive is /ɹɪˈsiːv/ while Recife is /ɹɪˈsiːfi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44826, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

receive is recorded at frequency rank #1,496, classified as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈsiːv/. Recife is at rank #43,330, tagged as aname, pronounced /ɹɪˈsiːfi/.

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 44826, this pair ranks #226,954 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of receive vs Recife

Shared letters: ceir. Private to "receive": v. Private to "Recife": f.

"receive" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "Recife" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • receiveerceive · rceeive · recceive · receiev · receivve · recevie · recieve · reecive
  • Recifeercife · rceife · reccife · recfie · recief · reciffe · reicfe · rrecife

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "receive" and "Recife" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "receive" is a verb and "Recife" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "receive" or "Recife"?
"receive" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,496 in our English list, against #43,330 for "Recife". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "receive" and "Recife". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "receive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Recife" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #226,954 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "receive" and "Recife" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recede vs Recife". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list