recibanvsrecitarTell them apart

Which to use

“reciban” and “recitar” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,690
“reciban” frequency rank
#30,220
“recitar” frequency rank
42910
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reciban recitar
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de recibir o de recibirse. Decir en voz alta y ante un público un discurso, mensaje, cuento o texto.

Where the eye mixes reciban and recitar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. reciban and recitar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
reciban
7 ch
recitar

Why the eye confuses reciban with recitar

A purely visual mix-up. reciban ([reˈsiβ̞ãn]) and recitar ([resiˈt̪aɾ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42910, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reciban is recorded at frequency rank #12,690, classified as averb, pronounced [reˈsiβ̞ãn]. recitar is at rank #30,220, tagged as averb, pronounced [resiˈt̪aɾ].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 42910, this pair ranks #145,605 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reciban vs recitar

Shared letters: aceir. Private to "reciban": bn. Private to "recitar": t.

"reciban" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "recitar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reciban ← erciban · rceiban · recbian · recciban · reciabn · recibann · recibban · recibna
  • recitar ← ercitar · rceitar · reccitar · reciatr · recitarr · recitra · recittar · rectiar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "reciban" for "recitar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([reˈsiβ̞ãn] versus [resiˈt̪aɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "reciban" or "recitar"?
"reciban" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,690 in our Spanish list, against #30,220 for "recitar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "reciban" and "recitar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "reciban" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recitar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #145,605 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reciban" and "recitar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recitar vs rectal". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #145,605 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list