recce
/ˈɹɛ.ki/
"recce" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“recce” is uncommon English (frequency #73,578 among 3,094 “R” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #73,578
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Reconnaissance.
Corpus desk
Index EN-recce · recce · English
recce · rank #73,578 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #73,578
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH recapitulation
Nearest frequency peer: recapitulation (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “recce”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- rebuking
rebuking
26,426 corpus weight
- recapitulat…
recapitulation
26,424 corpus weight
- recce
recce
26,423 corpus weight
- reclassify
reclassify
26,422 corpus weight
- recreationa…
recreationally
26,421 corpus weight
- redskin
redskin
26,419 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “recce” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | recce |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹɛ.ki/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #73,578 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “recce” in English
Rare enough to double-check
recce is uncommon English at frequency #73,578 among 3,094 “R” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɹɛ.ki/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Reconnaissance.".
Zero misspellings are on record for recce in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Clipping of reconnaissance. The correct English form is recce, spelled R-E-C-C-E.
Definition
- 1Reconnaissance.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how recce appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1953, J. (Julian) Maclaren-Ross, The Weeping and the Laughter: A Chapter of Autobiography Visiting the town on what in the more recent war we called a recce, she arranged a tennis-match with Dolly, guessing that the girl would be a bad loser.
As he climbed into the car, his recce of the space behind the seats was still a little too obvious despite best efforts at subtlety.
Etymology
Clipping of reconnaissance.
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 "recce", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).