receitavsrecenteConfusable pair

Quick tell: receita is a noun, recente is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“receita” is a noun and “recente” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,283
“receita” frequency rank
#2,068
“recente” frequency rank
5351
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature receita recente
Definition fórmula para a preparação de produtos culinários ou industriais; prescrição que sucedeu ou existe há pouco; moderno; que é novidade

Where the eye mixes receita and recente

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. receita (CVCVVCV) and recente (CVCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
receita
7 ch
recente

Why the eye confuses receita with recente

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: receita is /Rɨ.ˈsɐj.tɐ/ while recente is /Rɨ.ˈsẽ.tɨ/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5351, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

receita is recorded at frequency rank #3,283, classified as anoun, pronounced /Rɨ.ˈsɐj.tɐ/. recente is at rank #2,068, tagged as anadj, pronounced /Rɨ.ˈsẽ.tɨ/.

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 5351, this pair ranks #69,283 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of receita vs recente

Shared letters: cert. Private to "receita": ai. Private to "recente": n.

"receita" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "recente" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • receita ← erceita · rceeita · recceita · receiat · receitta · recetia · recieta · reecita
  • recente ← ercente · rceente · reccente · recenet · recennte · recentte · recetne · recnete

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "receita" for "recente" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "receita" is a noun and "recente" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "receita" or "recente" show up more?
"recente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,068 in our Portuguese list, against #3,283 for "receita". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "receita" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,283 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "receita" and "recente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recente vs relento". 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 #69,283 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list