receivevsreviveWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,496
“receive” frequency rank
#11,596
“revive” frequency rank
13092
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature receive revive
Definition To be given, sent, or paid something. To cause (a person or animal) to recover from a faint; to cause (a person or animal) to return to a state of consciousness.

Where the eye mixes receive and revive

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

7 ch
receive
6 ch
revive

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. receive (/ɹɪˈsiːv/) and revive (/ɹɪˈvaɪv/) 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 13092, 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/. revive is at rank #11,596, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈvaɪv/.

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 13092, this pair ranks #477,815 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of receive vs revive

Shared letters: eirv. Private to "receive": c. Private to "revive": -.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • receiveerceive · rceeive · recceive · receiev · receivve · recevie · recieve · reecive
  • reviveervive · reivve · reviev · revivve · revvie · revvive · rrevive · rveive

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "receive" and "revive" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɹɪˈsiːv/ versus /ɹɪˈvaɪv/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "receive" or "revive"?
"receive" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,496 in our English list, against #11,596 for "revive". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list