Received

How to spell received

8 letters · 2 syllables

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

recieved received

What people typed instead

• recieved7 people

How to pronounce received

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does received mean?

1. verbTook or accepted something that was given, sent, or offered.

Received in a sentence

• She received the parcel two days after it was posted.

• The company received hundreds of applications for the role.

Where does received come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of 'receive', which English took from the Old French 'receivre', itself descended from the Latin 'recipere', meaning 'to take back' or 'to regain'. That Latin verb joined the prefix 're-' (back, again) with 'capere', meaning 'to take' or 'to seize', so the literal idea was of taking something into one's possession. The same 'capere' root surfaces in a whole family of English words such as 'capture', 'accept' and 'capable', all of which carry the sense of taking or holding. The spelling preserves the famous 'i before e except after c' rule: because the sound follows a 'c', the order is 'ei', and forgetting this is the single most common reason adults misspell it. English has used the word since the 1300s, originally for the act of accepting or being given something.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• -ceive (from Latin capere: to take)
• -ed (past tense suffix)