reconnoiter

English

WOTD – 19 September 2006

Alternative forms

• (British, Canadian) reconnoitre

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɹɛkəˈnɔɪtə/, [ˌɹʷɛkəˈnɔɪ̯tʰə]
• IPA^(key): /ˌɹɛkəˈnɔɪtɚ/, [ˌɹˠɛkəˈnɔɪ̯ɾɚ]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Verb

reconnoiter (third-person singular simple present reconnoiters, present participle reconnoitering, simple past and past participle reconnoitered)

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

   Our scout will reconnoiter the path ahead of our troops.

Synonyms

• scout, survey

Translations

perform a reconnaissance

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 偵察／侦察 (zh) (zhēnchá), 侦察 (zh) (zhēnchá)

• Finnish: tiedustella (fi)
• French: reconnaître (fr)
• German: erkunden (de), kundschaften
• Hungarian: felderít (hu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 偵察する (ていさつする, teisatsu-suru)
• Latin: speculor
• Maori: hūhunu, hunuhunu, ārohi
• Russian: разве́дывать (ru) (razvédyvatʹ), рекогносци́ровать (ru) (rekognoscírovatʹ)
• Ukrainian: розвідувати (rozviduvaty), рекогносцирувати (rekohnoscyruvaty), пластувати (plastuvaty)

Noun

reconnoiter (plural reconnoiters)

1. (American spelling) An act or instance of reconnoitering.

   The pilot reported the findings of his reconnoiter.

Related terms

• recon
• recce
• reconnaissance

Translations

instance of reconnoitering

• Norwegian: rekognosere
• Russian: разве́дка (ru) f (razvédka), рекогносциро́вка (ru) f (rekognosciróvka)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Ukrainian: розвідка f (rozvidka), рекогнозцировка f (rekohnozcyrovka), пласт m (plast), пластування n (plastuvannja)

Anagrams

• reconnoitre