Spoiler Sunday standard - rare versus common

[Tom44]

This one I don't quite get:  Orate is rare, Recto is common.  Both are in the bottom 30% of usage according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, but I just don't believe that recto is more common than orate.  The reverse I would believe, but they either should be both rare or both common.  I vote for common, and a lot more people played orate than recto in the Chi community.  What say you, Alan?

[Tom44]

Sorry, I guess that was Friday's puzzle.  Forgot I was off the air yesterday.

[Katzmeow]

This one I don't quite get:  Orate is rare, Recto is common.  Both are in the bottom 30% of usage according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, but I just don't believe that recto is more common than orate.  The reverse I would believe, but they either should be both rare or both common.  I vote for common, and a lot more people played orate than recto in the Chi community.  What say you, Alan?

I agree. I was surprised to see orate is considered rare - in fact I wondered whether it had recently been classified as rare because I felt sure it had been considered common before.  And recto?  Not a word I had come across before.

[Alan W]

Orate was changed last year from common to rare. There had been a few queries about the fact that orate was common while orated was rare. I concluded that both words are very rarely used, and so should be classed as rare. A few people disagreed with that ruling, including Tom44.

In 2014 gromit queried recto being common, as well as the related verso. I'm yet to reply to that suggestion.

[Jacki]

In newspapers, advertising, publishing offices etc, recto is probably not so rare. I cannot believe orate is rare. Every time I go to play it, I check myself and shake my head as I have chosen at this stage to just try and get all the common words in the minimum moves. This is mainly because there are just too many words for anyone with a life to solve day in day out!
Plus I find T-Rex, vch and grumpy 22 so inspiring.