recèlentvsrecevantWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“recèlent” and “recevant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#49,896
“recèlent” frequency rank
#12,036
“recevant” frequency rank
61932
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recèlent recevant
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de receler. Participe présent de recevoir.

Where the eye mixes recèlent and recevant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. recèlent and recevant follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
recèlent
8 ch
recevant

Why the eye confuses recèlent with recevant

A purely visual mix-up. recèlent (\ʁə.sɛl\) and recevant (\ʁə.sə.vɑ̃\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61932, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recèlent is recorded at frequency rank #49,896, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.sɛl\. recevant is at rank #12,036, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.sə.vɑ̃\.

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 61932, this pair ranks #89,701 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of recèlent vs recevant

Shared letters: cenrt. Private to "recèlent": lè. Private to "recevant": av.

"recèlent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC  ·  "recevant" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recevant ← ercevant · rceevant · reccevant · receavnt · recevannt · recevantt · recevatn · recevnat

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "recèlent" and "recevant" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.sɛl\ versus \ʁə.sə.vɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "recèlent" or "recevant"?
"recevant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,036 in our French list, against #49,896 for "recèlent". 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 "recèlent" and "recevant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "recèlent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recevant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #89,701 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recèlent" and "recevant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recèlent vs repèrent". 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 #89,701 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list