recognize

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Contents

English [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

Alternative forms [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

From Latin recognoscere, first attested in the 16th century. Displaced native English acknow ("to recognize, to perceive as", compare German erkennen).

Verb [edit]

recognize (third-person singular simple present recognizes, present participle recognizing, simple past and past participle recognized)

  1. (transitive) To match something or someone which one currently perceives to a memory of some previous encounter with the same entity.
    • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,
      He looked in vain into the stalls for the butcher who had sold fresh meat twice a week, on market days, and he felt a genuine thrill of pleasure when he recognized the red bandana turban of old Aunt Lyddy, the ancient negro woman who had sold him gingerbread and fried fish, and told him weird tales of witchcraft and conjuration, in the old days when, as an idle boy, he had loafed about the market-house.
  2. (transitive) To acknowledge the existence or legality of something; treat as valid or worthy of consideration.
    The US and a number of EU countries are expected to recognize Kosovo on Monday.
  3. (transitive) To acknowledge or consider as something.
  4. (transitive) To realize or discover the nature of something; apprehend quality in; realize or admit that.
  5. (transitive) To give an award.
Derived terms [edit]
Related terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
to match in memory; to know from a previous encounter
to acknowledge the existence or legality of something
to acknowledge as something
to realize or discover the nature of something
to give an award
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Translations to be checked

Etymology 2 [edit]

From re- + cognize

Verb [edit]

recognize

  1. To cognize again.
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