rest vs rev, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#594
“rest” frequency rank: #5,912
“rev” frequency rank: 6506
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	rest	rev
Definition	Relief from work or activity by sleeping; sleep.	To increase the speed of a motor, or to operate at a higher speed.

Where the eye mixes rest and rev

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch

rest

3 ch

rev

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rest is /ɹɛst/ while rev is /ɹɛv/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6506, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rest is recorded at frequency rank #594, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹɛst/. rev is at rank #5,912, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɹɛv/.

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 6506, this pair ranks #511,142 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rest vs rev

Shared letters: er. Private to "rest": st. Private to "rev": v.

"rest" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "rev" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

rest ← erst · resst · restt · rets · rrest · rset

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rest" and "rev" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rest" is a noun and "rev" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "rest" or "rev"?

"rest" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #594 in our English list, against #5,912 for "rev". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "rest" and "rev". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "rest" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "rev" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #511,142 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"rest" and "rev" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rev vs Rua". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.