Recognize

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɹɛkəɡnaɪz/

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

Alternative forms

• recognise non-Oxford British spelling

Full definition of recognize

Verb

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.
• 2013, Katrina G. Claw, Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm, In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.
5. (transitive) To give an award.
6. To show appreciation of.to recognize services by a testimonial
7. (obsolete) To review; to examine again.
8. (obsolete) To reconnoiter.

Derived terms

• recognizability
• recognizable
• recognizably
• recognizance
• recognizant
• recognization
• recognizee
• recognizer
• recognizor

Related terms

• recognition

From re- + cognize

Alternative forms

• re-cognize

Verb

1. To cognize again.