Which to use
“Recife” is a name and “recite” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #43,330
- “Recife” frequency rank
- #20,200
- “recite” frequency rank
- 63530
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Recife | recite |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A municipality, the state capital of Pernambuco, Brazil. | To repeat aloud (some passage, poem or other text previously memorized, or in front of one's eyes), often before an audience. |
Where the eye mixes Recife and recite
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Recife and recite follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: Recife vs recite
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Recife is /ɹɪˈsiːfi/ while recite is /ɹɪˈsaɪt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - f in “Recife” becomes t in “recite”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63530, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Recife is recorded at frequency rank #43,330, classified as aname, pronounced /ɹɪˈsiːfi/. recite is at rank #20,200, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈsaɪt/.
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 63530, this pair ranks #82,458 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Recife vs recite
Shared letters: ceir. Private to "Recife": f. Private to "recite": t.
"Recife" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "recite" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Recife" for "recite" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Recife" or "recite"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "Recife" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "recite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #82,458 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Recife" and "recite" 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
Confusion rank #82,458 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.