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recipe

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

6 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "recipe", 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 "recipe" 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 "recipe" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

recipe is aEnglishnoun. It means: A formula for preparing or using a medicine; a prescription; also, a medicine prepared from such instructions. Pronounced /ˈɹɛs.ɪ.pi/. It ranks #4,886 in English word frequency. Often confused with ripe and regime.

Key facts for recipe
PropertyValue
Headwordrecipe
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈɹɛs.ɪ.pi/
Letters6
Frequency rank#4,886
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs16
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of recipe in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for recipe is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹɛs.ɪ.pi/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,886 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for recipe, with forms such as "ercipe", "rceipe", and "reccipe". 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, "ripe", "regime", "retire", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French récipé, from Latin recipe, second person singular imperative of Latin recipiō (“receive”). Doublet of recept and receipt. 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 recipe, spelled R-E-C-I-P-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A formula for preparing or using a medicine; a prescription; also, a medicine prepared from such instructions.
  2. 2
    Any set of instructions for preparing a mixture of ingredients.
  3. 3
    A plan or procedure to obtain a given end result; a prescription.
  4. 4
    Now especially, a set of instructions for making or preparing food dishes.
  5. 5
    A set of conditions and parameters of an industrial process to obtain a given result.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French récipé, from Latin recipe, second person singular imperative of Latin recipiō (“receive”). Doublet of recept and receipt.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ercipe,rceipe,reccipe,reciep,recippe,recpie,reicpe,rrecipe

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for recipe

Misspelling Variants of "recipe"

ercipe6rceipe6reccipe7reciep6recippe7recpie6reicpe6rrecipe7
Misspelling Variants of "recipe"

Frequency rank: #4,886 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "recipe"?
"recipe" is spelled R-E-C-I-P-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈɹɛs.ɪ.pi/.
What does "recipe" mean?
As a noun, "recipe" means: A formula for preparing or using a medicine; a prescription; also, a medicine prepared from such instructions.
What words are commonly confused with "recipe"?
"recipe" is commonly confused with "ripe", "regime", "retire". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "recipe"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "recipe" is /ˈɹɛs.ɪ.pi/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "recipe"?
Borrowed from Middle French récipé, from Latin recipe, second person singular imperative of Latin recipiō (“receive”). Doublet of recept and receipt. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.