recessive
/ɹɪˈsɛsɪv/
"recessive" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“recessive” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #32,553. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #32,553
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Going back; receding.
Corpus desk
Index EN-recessive · recessive · English
recessive · rank #32,553 · 11 variants · 7 confusables
- FREQ-MID #32,553
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 7 pairs
- VAR-MID 11 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH Raquel
Nearest frequency peer: Raquel (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “recessive”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- radioactivi…
radioactivity
67,451 corpus weight
- Raquel
Raquel
67,449 corpus weight
- recessive
recessive
67,448 corpus weight
- reclining
reclining
67,447 corpus weight
- Redford
Redford
67,446 corpus weight
- reeve
reeve
67,445 corpus weight
What this shows “recessive” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | recessive |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɹɪˈsɛsɪv/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #32,553 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “recessive”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 11 spelling variants around recessive (IPA /ɹɪˈsɛsɪv/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #32,553 among 3,094 “R” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for recessive, with forms such as "ercessive", "rceessive", and "reccessive". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "recursive", "reclusive", "repressive", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin recēdō + -ive, or directly from New Latin recessīvus. The correct English form is recessive, spelled R-E-C-E-S-S-I-V-E.
Definition
- 1Going back; receding.
- 2Able to be masked by a dominant allele or trait.
- 3Not dominant; whose effect is masked by stronger effects.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how recessive appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1944 June 21, James A. G. Rehn, South African Bird-Locust Records and Notes (Orthoptera; Acrididae; Cyrtacanthacridinae; Group Cyrtacanthacres), Notulae Naturae, Number 137, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, page 3, The Lydenburg male and the other two females have the infuscate pattern definitely more recessive and less evident, although trace…
This plan takes advantage of the fact that barless is the most recessive of a series of alleles.
Etymology
From Latin recēdō + -ive, or directly from New Latin recessīvus.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ercessive
- rceessive
- reccessive
- recesisve
- recesive
- recessiev
- recessivve
- recessvie
- recsesive
- reecssive
- rrecessive
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of recessive - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "recessive", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).