revive
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 "revive", 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 "revive" 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 "revive" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
revive is aEnglishverb. It means: To cause (a person or animal) to recover from a faint; to cause (a person or animal) to return to a state of consciousness. Pronounced /ɹɪˈvaɪv/. Often confused with revue and revoke.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | revive |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɹɪˈvaɪv/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #11,596 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for revive is 6 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹɪˈvaɪv/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,596 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 19 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 revive, with forms such as "ervive", "reivve", and "reviev". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "revue", "revoke", "revived", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The verb is derived from Late Middle English reviven, revyven (“to recover from illness; to regain consciousness; to return to life after death; to happen again, recur; to be rejuvenated, renewed; (figurative) to bring back; (alchemy) of a metal: to be rest… 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 revive, spelled R-E-V-I-V-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To cause (a person or animal) to recover from a faint; to cause (a person or animal) to return to a state of consciousness.
- 2To bring (a person or animal which is dead) back to life.
- 3To cause (something) to recover from a state of decline, neglect, oblivion, or obscurity; to make (something) active or lively again; to reanimate, to revitalize.
- 4To cause (a feeling, state of mind, etc.) to come back or return; to reactivate, to reawaken.
- 5To renew (something) in one's or people's memories or minds; to bring back (something) to (public) attention; to reawaken.
- 6To make (something which has become faded or unclear) clear or fresh again; to refresh.
- 7To restore (a metal (especially mercury) or other substance in a compound or mixture) to its pure or unmixed state.
- 8To give new validity to (a law or legal instrument); to reenact, to revalidate.
- 9To put on a new production of (a musical, play, or other stage performance; also, a film or television programme).
- 10To bring (someone) back to a state of health or vigour.
- 11To rerun (an election).
- 12To recover from a faint; to return to a state of consciousness.
- 13Of a dead person or animal: to be brought back to life.
- 14Of a person, animal, or plant: to return to a state of health or vigour, especially after almost dying.
- 15To recover from a state of decline, neglect, oblivion, or obscurity; to become active or lively again; to reanimate, to revitalize.
- 16Of a feeling, state of mind, etc.: to come back or return; to be reactivated or reawakened.
- 17Of a metal (especially mercury) or other substance in a compound or mixture: to return to its pure or unmixed state.
- 18Of a law or legal instrument: to be given new validity.
- 19Of a musical, play, or other stage performance; also, a film or television programme: to have a new production put on.
Etymology
The verb is derived from Late Middle English reviven, revyven (“to recover from illness; to regain consciousness; to return to life after death; to happen again, recur; to be rejuvenated, renewed; (figurative) to bring back; (alchemy) of a metal: to be restored to its original form”), from Anglo-Norman reviver, revivre (“to return to life after death; to rejuvenate, renew; to make (a law or legal document) valid again”), Middle French revivre, and Old French revivre (“to return to life after death; to rejuvenate, renew”) (modern French revivre), and directly from their etymon Latin revīvere, the present active infinitive of revīvō (“to live again”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’) + vīvō (“to be alive, survive; to live”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”)). The noun is derived from the verb.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ervive,reivve,reviev,revivve,revvie,revvive,rrevive,rveive
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for revive
Misspelling Variants of "revive"
Frequency rank: #11,596 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: