Which to use
“recovered” is a verb and “recovery” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,706
- “recovered” frequency rank
- #2,591
- “recovery” frequency rank
- 7297
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recovered | recovery |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of recover | The act or process of regaining or repossession of something lost. |
Where the eye mixes recovered and recovery
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. recovered runs 9 letters (CVCVCVCVC) against recovery's 8 (CVCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: recovered vs recovery
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: recovered is /ɹɪˈkʌvɚd/ while recovery is /ɹɪˈkʌvəɹi/. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7297, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
recovered is recorded at frequency rank #4,706, classified as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈkʌvɚd/. recovery is at rank #2,591, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹɪˈkʌvəɹi/.
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 7297, this pair ranks #507,731 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of recovered vs recovery
Shared letters: ceorv. Private to "recovered": d. Private to "recovery": y.
"recovered" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC · "recovery" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "recovered" and "recovery" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "recovered" or "recovery" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "recovered" and "recovery" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "recovered" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "recovery" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #507,731 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recovered" and "recovery" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recovery 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 #507,731 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.