Which to use
“received” is a verb and “receiver” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #720
- “received” frequency rank
- #6,172
- “receiver” frequency rank
- 6892
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | received | receiver |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of receive | A person who receives. |
Where the eye mixes received and receiver
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. received and receiver follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: received vs receiver
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: received is /ɹɪˈsiːvd/ while receiver is /ɹəˈsi.vɚ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “received” becomes r in “receiver”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6892, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
received is recorded at frequency rank #720, classified as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈsiːvd/. receiver is at rank #6,172, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹəˈsi.vɚ/.
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 6892, this pair ranks #509,536 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of received vs receiver
Shared letters: ceirv. Private to "received": d. Private to "receiver": -.
"received" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC · "receiver" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "received" and "receiver" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "received" or "receiver" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "received" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "receiver" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #509,536 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "received" and "receiver" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "receiver vs recliner". 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
Confusion rank #509,536 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.