# reception

> English word · Noun · IPA /ɹɪˈsɛp.ʃn̩/ · frequency rank #4,885

## Definitions
1. The act of receiving.
2. The act or ability to receive radio or similar signals.
3. A social engagement, usually to formally welcome someone.
4. A reaction; the treatment received on first talking to a person, arriving at a place, etc.
5. The desk of a hotel or office where guests are received.
6. The school year, or part thereof, between preschool and Year 1, when children are introduced to formal education.
7. The conscious adoption or transplantation of legal phenomena from a different culture.
8. The act of catching a pass.
9. Reading viewed as the active process of receiving a text in any medium (written, spoken, signed, multimodal, nonverbal), consisting of several steps, such as ideation, comprehension, reconstruction, interpretation.

## Etymology
From Middle English recepcion, reception, from Middle French reception, from Latin receptiōn- (“the act of receiving; reception”), from recipiō (“receive”), from re- (“back”) + capiō (“to hold”). Equivalent to receive + -tion.

## Easily confused with
- **receptor** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/reception-vs-receptor)
- **rejection** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/reception-vs-rejection)
- **recession** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/reception-vs-recession)
- **retention** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/reception-vs-retention)
- **receptive** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/reception-vs-receptive)
- **resection** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/reception-vs-resection)
- **recreation** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/reception-vs-recreation)
- **redemption** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/reception-vs-redemption)

## Common misspellings (14)
`erception`, `rceeption`, `recception`, `recepiton`, `recepption`, `recepsion`, `receptino`, `receptionn`, `receptoin`, `recepttion`, `recetpion`, `recpetion`, `reecption`, `rreception`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/reception