receive
re·ceive/ɹɪˈsiv/verb, noun
receive is spelled R-E-C-E-I-V-E, 2 syllables: re·ceive. The wrong spelling people search most is recieve: about 4,300 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 3 in 10 of all searches for the word. Receive is a verb meaning “To be given, sent, or paid something”.
How many letters and syllables are in receive?
| Letters | 7: R-E-C-E-I-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: re·ceive |
| In writing | 71 times per million words; the 1,486th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, recieve, about 4,300 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell receive?
Receive is spelled R-E-C-E-I-V-E. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 3 in 10 of the searches for receive in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is receive?
Receive appears 71 times per million words in written English, the 1,486th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce receive?
- UK /ɹɪˈsiːv/
- US /ɹɪˈsiv/
Receive has 2 syllables, split re·ceive in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-receive.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with receive?
10 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as receive from its last stressed vowel (/iv/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of receive
- receives present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- receiving participle, present
- received participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does receive mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To be given, sent, or paid something.
He received many presents for his birthday.
- 2
datedTo take, as something that is offered; to accept.
He had the offer of employment, but he would not receive it.
- 3
To take goods knowing them to be stolen.
- 4
To act as a host for guests; to give admittance to; to permit to enter, as into one's house, presence, company, etc.
to receive a lodger, visitor, ambassador, messenger, etc.
- 5
To incur (an injury).
I received a bloody nose from the collision.
- 6
To allow (a custom, tradition, etc.); to give credence or acceptance to.
- 7
To detect a signal from a transmitter.
- 8
To be in a position to hit back a service.
noun
- 1
An operation in which data is received.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate receive?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of receive: RX.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Receive in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to take what is offered, accept from another:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | recevoir |
| German | bekommen, erhalten, empfangen, kriegen |
| Portuguese | receber, ganhar |
| Spanish | recibir, receptar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does receive come from?
From Middle English receyven, from Old French receivre, from Latin recipere (“take back, accept, etc.”), from re- (“back”) + capiō (“to take”); see capacious. Compare conceive, deceive, perceive. Displaced native Middle English terms in -fon/-fangen (e.g. afon, anfon, afangen, underfangen, etc. "to receive" from Old English -fōn), native Middle English thiggen (“to receive”) (from Old English þiċġan), and non-native Middle English aquilen, enquilen (“to receive”) (from Old French aquillir, encueillir).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).