recear vs receio, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“recear” is a verb and “receio” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,052
“recear” frequency rank: #6,578
“receio” frequency rank: 51630
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	recear	receio
Definition	temer	medo

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set recear and receio apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

recear

6 ch

receio

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: recear is /Rɨ.ˈsjaɾ/ while receio is /Rɨ.ˈsɐj.u/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recear is recorded at frequency rank #45,052, classified as averb, pronounced /Rɨ.ˈsjaɾ/. receio is at rank #6,578, tagged as anoun, pronounced /Rɨ.ˈsɐj.u/.

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 51630, this pair ranks #13,452 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of recear vs receio

Shared letters: cer. Private to "recear": a. Private to "receio": io.

"recear" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "receio" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

recear ← ercear · rceear · recaer · reccear · recearr · recera · reecar · rrecear
receio ← erceio · rceeio · recceio · receoi · recieo · reecio · rreceio

Frequency comparison

recear#45,052

receio#6,578

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "recear" and "receio" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "recear" is a verb and "receio" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "recear" or "receio"?

"receio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,578 in our Portuguese list, against #45,052 for "recear". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering recear vs receio

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “recear”; for a noun, it's “receio”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “recear” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable