recess
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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6 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "recess", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "recess" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "recess" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
recess is aEnglishnoun. It means: A depressed, hollow, or indented space; also, a hole or opening. Pronounced /ɹɪˈsɛs/. Often confused with Reese and Reyes.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | recess |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹɪˈsɛs/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #14,396 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 16 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for recess is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹɪˈsɛs/. Corpus data places it at rank #14,396 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 18 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for recess, with forms such as "ercess", "rceess", and "reccess". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 16 confusable-pair relationships, "Reese", "Reyes", "reels", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is borrowed from Latin recessus (“act of going back, departure, receding, retiring; (figuratively) retreat, withdrawal; (metonymically) distant, secluded, or secret spot, corner, nook, retreat; recessed part, indentation”) (also Late Latin recessus… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is recess, spelled R-E-C-E-S-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A depressed, hollow, or indented space; also, a hole or opening.
- 2A depressed, hollow, or indented space; also, a hole or opening.
- 3A depressed, hollow, or indented space; also, a hole or opening.
- 4A hidden, innermost, or inaccessible place or part of a place.
- 5A hidden, innermost, or inaccessible place or part of a place.
- 6A hidden, innermost, or inaccessible place or part of a place.
- 7A temporary stoppage of an activity; a break, a pause.
- 8A temporary stoppage of an activity; a break, a pause.
- 9A temporary stoppage of an activity; a break, a pause.
- 10An act of retiring or withdrawing; a moving back.
- 11A decree or resolution of the diet of the Holy Roman Empire or the Hanseatic League.
- 12An act of retiring or withdrawing from public life, society, etc.; also, an act of living in retirement or seclusion, or a period of such retirement or seclusion.
- 13Leisure, relaxation.
- 14The state of being withdrawn.
- 15A departure from a norm or position.
- 16A time interval during which something ceases; an interruption, a respite.
- 17An overall-concave, reentrant section of a sinuous fold and thrust belt, thrust sheet, or a single thrust fault, caused by one or more of: deformation (folding and faulting) of strata and geologic structures during orogenesis, differences in the angle of critical taper during orogenesis, or differing erosional level of the present geomorphological surface.
- 18An extension or outpouching of a cavity (e.g. articular recess, peritoneal recess,...)
Etymology
The noun is borrowed from Latin recessus (“act of going back, departure, receding, retiring; (figuratively) retreat, withdrawal; (metonymically) distant, secluded, or secret spot, corner, nook, retreat; recessed part, indentation”) (also Late Latin recessus (“decree or resolution of the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire”)), from recēdō (“to go back, recede, retire, withdraw; to go away, depart; (by extension) to disappear, vanish; to separate; to stand back, be distant; to yield”) (from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards’) + cēdō (“to go, move, proceed”)) + -tus (suffix forming action nouns from verbs); influenced by Middle French recès, French recès (“a break, pause; break between classes in school; school vacation; ebbing of tide; reduction”) (also Anglo-Norman recès and Old French recès (“hiding place; hollow”). Noun sense 5 (“decree or resolution of the diet of the Holy Roman Empire, etc.”) is possibly influenced by Italian recesso and refers to a decree or resolution made just before a meeting ends. The adjective and verb are derived from the noun. Cognates * Catalan recés * Italian recesso * Middle French recès (modern French recès) * Portuguese recesso * Spanish receso
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ercess,rceess,reccess,reces,recses,reecss,rrecess
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for recess
Misspelling Variants of "recess"
Frequency rank: #14,396 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: