reconnoitre

English

Etymology

From French reconnoître (obsolete spelling of reconnaître), from Latin recognoscere (“to recognise”). Contrarily, there is also an obsolete 19th-century British English spelling reconnaitre (now reconnoitre).

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /ˌrɛkəˈnɔɪtə/, [ˌɹʷɛkəˈnɔɪ̯tʰə]
• (US) IPA: /ˌrɛkəˈnɔɪtɚ/, [ˌɹˠɛkəˈnɔɪ̯ɾɚ]

• Audio (US)

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Alternative forms

• (US) reconnoiter

Verb

reconnoitre (third-person singular simple present reconnoitres, present participle reconnoitring, simple past and past participle reconnoitred)

1. (transitive, intransitive, military) To perform a reconnaissance (of an area; an enemy position); to scout with the aim of gaining information.

   Our scout will reconnoitre the path ahead of our troops.

2. (obsolete) To recognise.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir H. Walpole to this entry?)

Synonyms

• scout, survey

Translations

perform a reconnaissance

• Finnish: tiedustella (fi)
• French: reconnaître (fr)
• Hungarian: felderít (hu)
• Japanese: 偵察する (ていさつする, teisatsu suru)

• Maori: ārohi (mi)
• Russian: разведывать (ru) (razvédyvat’), рекогносцировать (ru) (rekognoscírovat’)
• Ukrainian: розвідувати (uk) (rozviduvaty), рекогносцирувати (uk) (rekohnoscyruvaty), пластувати (uk) (plastuvaty)

Noun

reconnoitre (plural reconnoitres)

1. An act or instance of reconnoitring.

   The pilot reported the findings of his reconnoitre.

Translations

instance of reconnoitring

• Russian: разведка (ru) (razvédka) f, рекогносцировка (ru) (rekognosciróvka) f
• Ukrainian: розвідка (uk) (rozvidka) f, рекогнозцировка (uk) (rekohnoscyrovka) f, пласт (uk) (plast) m, пластування (uk) (plastuvannja) n

Related terms

• recon
• recce
• reconnaissance

Anagrams

• reconnoiter