Which to use
“recur” is a verb and “rerun” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,442
- “recur” frequency rank
- #33,001
- “rerun” frequency rank
- 77443
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recur | rerun |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Of an event, situation, etc.: to appear or happen again, especially repeatedly. | An act or instance of rerunning; a repetition. |
Where the eye mixes recur and rerun
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. recur and rerun follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between recur and rerun
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: recur is /ɹɪˈkɜː/ while rerun is /ˈɹiːɹʌn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77443, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
recur is recorded at frequency rank #44,442, classified as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈkɜː/. rerun is at rank #33,001, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹiːɹʌn/.
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 77443, this pair ranks #27,223 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of recur vs rerun
Shared letters: eru. Private to "recur": c. Private to "rerun": n.
"recur" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "rerun" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "recur" and "rerun" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "recur" or "rerun"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "recur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rerun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #27,223 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recur" and "rerun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rebar vs recur". 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 #27,223 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.