Which to use
“recover” and “recovered” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,401
- “recover” frequency rank
- #4,706
- “recovered” frequency rank
- 9107
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recover | recovered |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To get back, to regain (a physical thing; in astronomy and navigation, sight of a thing or a signal). | simple past and past participle of recover |
Where the eye mixes recover and recovered
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. recover runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against recovered's 9 (CVCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: recover vs recovered
A purely visual mix-up. recover (/ɹɪˈkʌvə/) and recovered (/ɹɪˈkʌvɚd/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “recover” sits inside “recovered”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9107, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
recover is recorded at frequency rank #4,401, classified as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈkʌvə/. recovered is at rank #4,706, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈkʌvɚd/.
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 9107, this pair ranks #499,054 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of recover vs recovered
Shared letters: ceorv. Private to "recover": -. Private to "recovered": d.
"recover" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "recovered" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "recover" and "recovered" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "recover" or "recovered"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "recover" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "recovered" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #499,054 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recover" and "recovered" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recover vs remover". 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 #499,054 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.