Receive

How to spell receive

7 letters · 2 syllables

11 of the 25 people asked to spell receive in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

The most common mistake is recieve. The letters people get wrong are highlighted.

recieve receive

What people typed instead

• recieve7 people
• recive3 people

How to pronounce receive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does receive mean?

1. verbTo be given, paid, or sent something, or to take delivery of it.

Receive in a sentence

• Did you receive my email?

• I expect to receive a reply by Monday.

Where does receive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin recipere, meaning 'to take back' or 'to regain', built from the prefix re- 'back' and capere 'to take or seize'. English borrowed it during the 1200s through Old French receivre, where the spelling shifted away from the original Latin -cip- form. The same capere root sits behind a large family of English words including capture, accept, receipt and capable, all carrying the idea of taking or holding. The notorious spelling trap is the order of the vowels: the 'i before e except after c' rule applies here, so the c is followed by 'ei', not 'ie'. That schoolroom rhyme is exactly why receive is worth practising, since the partner word 'believe' takes the opposite order.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• ceive (from Latin capere: to take or grasp)