reportvsreporterWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: report is a verb, reporter is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“report” is a verb and “reporter” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#481
“report” frequency rank
#3,976
“reporter” frequency rank
4457
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature report reporter
Definition To relate details of (an event or incident); to recount, describe (something). Someone or something that reports.

Where the eye mixes report and reporter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
report
8 ch
reporter

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: report is /ɹɪˈpɔːt/ while reporter is /ɹɪˈpɔː.tə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “report” sits inside “reporter”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

report is recorded at frequency rank #481, classified as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈpɔːt/. reporter is at rank #3,976, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹɪˈpɔː.tə/.

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 4457, this pair ranks #518,864 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of report vs reporter

Shared letters: eoprt. Private to "report": -. Private to "reporter": -.

"report" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "reporter" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reporterport · reoprt · reporrt · reportt · repotr · repport · reprot · rpeort
  • reportererporter · reoprter · reporetr · reporrter · reporterr · reportre · reportter · repotrer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "report" and "reporter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "report" is a verb and "reporter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "report" or "reporter"?
"report" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #481 in our English list, against #3,976 for "reporter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list