Yes, a recessive allele is different from a dominant allele. Recessive alleles are the alleles that are not expressed in an individual's phenotype when there are two different alleles (heterozygous) for that gene. That means that the dominant allele is expressed instead. For example, in the case of eye color, brown eye color is dominant and blue eye color is recessive. If a person has one brown-eyed allele and one blue-eyed allele, they will have brown eyes because the brown-eyed allele is dominant.

On the other hand, dominant alleles are the alleles that are always expressed in an individual's phenotype, even if they only have one copy of the allele (heterozygous). An example of a dominant allele is the allele for brown eyes. If a person has one brown-eyed allele and one blue-eyed allele, they will have brown eyes because the brown-eyed allele is dominant.