recibovsreciénTell them apart

Quick tell: recibo is a noun, recién is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“recibo” is a noun and “recién” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,936
“recibo” frequency rank
#1,423
“recién” frequency rank
6359
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recibo recién
Definition Acción o efecto de recibir. Recientemente

Where the eye mixes recibo and recién

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
recibo
6 ch
recién

Visual trap between recibo and recién

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: recibo is [reˈsiβ̞o] while recién is [reˈsjẽn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6359, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recibo is recorded at frequency rank #4,936, classified as anoun, pronounced [reˈsiβ̞o]. recién is at rank #1,423, tagged as anadv, pronounced [reˈsjẽn].

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 6359, this pair ranks #310,998 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of recibo vs recién

Shared letters: ceir. Private to "recibo": bo. Private to "recién": .

"recibo" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "recién" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reciboercibo · rceibo · recbio · reccibo · recibbo · reciob · recivo · reicbo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "recibo" and "recién" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "recibo" is a noun and "recién" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "recibo" or "recién"?
"recién" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,423 in our Spanish list, against #4,936 for "recibo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "recibo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recién" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #310,998 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recibo" and "recién" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recibo vs reñido". 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 #310,998 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