recur
/ɹɪˈkɜː/
"recur" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“recur” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #44,442 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #44,442
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of an event, situation, etc.: to appear or happen again, especially repeatedly.
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 | recur |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɹɪˈkɜː/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #44,442 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “recur” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for recur is 5 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹɪˈkɜː/. Corpus data places it at rank #44,442 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for recur, with forms such as "ercur", "rceur", and "reccur". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Reus", "refer", "revue", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin recurrō (“to hurry or run back; to return, revert”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards’) + currō (“to hasten, hurry; to move, travel; to run”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”)). cognates * Anglo-Nor… The correct English form is recur, spelled R-E-C-U-R.
Definition
- 1Of an event, situation, etc.: to appear or happen again, especially repeatedly.
- 2Of an event, situation, etc.: to appear or happen again, especially repeatedly.
- 3Of a memory, thought, etc.: to come to the mind again.
- 4To speak, think, or write about something again; to go back or return to a memory, a subject, etc.
- 5Followed by to, or (Scotland, obsolete) on or upon: to have recourse to someone or something for assistance, support, etc.; to appeal, to resort, to turn to.
- 6Synonym of recurse (“to execute a procedure recursively”).
- 7Often in the form recurring following a number: of a numeral or group of numerals in a decimal fraction: to repeat indefinitely.
- 8Followed by into or to: to go to a place again; to return.
- 9Followed by into or to: To go back to doing an activity, or to using a thing; to return.
- 10Followed by to: to go to a place; to resort.
- 11Followed by from: to move or run back from something; to recede, to withdraw.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin recurrō (“to hurry or run back; to return, revert”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards’) + currō (“to hasten, hurry; to move, travel; to run”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”)). cognates * Anglo-Norman recurre, recorre (“to have recourse to”) * Catalan recórrer * Italian ricorrer * Old French recourir (Middle French recourir; modern French recourir (“to have recourse to; to run again; to run back”)) * Old Occitan recorre * Portuguese recorrer * Spanish recorrer
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ercur,rceur,reccur,recru,recurr,reucr,rrecur
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of recur - 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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Using “recur”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-E-C-U-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɹɪˈkɜː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Reus” - see the side-by-side comparison. recur vs Reus
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.