rec
/ɹɛk/
"rec" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rec” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #12,666) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #12,666
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Clipping of recreation.
Corpus desk
Index EN-rec · rec · English
rec · rank #12,666 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #12,666
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH rebuilt
Nearest frequency peer: rebuilt (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “rec”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- rapist
rapist
87,338 corpus weight
- rebuilt
rebuilt
87,336 corpus weight
- rec
rec
87,335 corpus weight
- rectangular
rectangular
87,334 corpus weight
- regulator
regulator
87,333 corpus weight
- renting
renting
87,332 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “rec” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rec |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹɛk/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #12,666 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “rec”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for rec is neighbouring look-alikes ("RS", "RT", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ɹɛk/. Frequency #12,666 among 3,094 “R” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for rec, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "RS", "RT", "RM", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is rec, spelled R-E-C.
Definition
- 1Clipping of recreation.
- 2Clipping of recreation ground.
- 3Clipping of recommendation.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how rec appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
At 11 o'clock, school's out, and it's time for rec.
“Got any recs?” “What are you looking for?” “Something angry,” I said.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "rec", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).