recognition

[ rek-uhg-nish-uhn ]

noun

1. an act of recognizing or the state of being recognized.
2. the identification of something as having been previously seen, heard, known, etc.
3. the perception of something as existing or true; realization.
4. the acknowledgment of something as valid or as entitled to consideration:

   the recognition of a claim.

5. the acknowledgment of achievement, service, merit, etc.

   Synonyms: acceptance, notice

6. the expression of this in the form of some token of appreciation:

   This promotion constitutes our recognition of her exceptional ability.

7. formal acknowledgment conveying approval or sanction.
8. acknowledgment of right to be heard or given attention:

   The chairman refused recognition to any delegate until order could be restored.

9. Psychology. the act or process of retrieving information previously encoded and stored in memory, when cued with the targeted information itself: Compare recall ( def 9 ), retrieval ( def 3 ).

   The paper studies the effect of storytelling on English learners’ recognition of vocabulary words.

10. International Law. an official act by which one state acknowledges the existence of another state or government, or of belligerency or insurgency.
11. the automated conversion of information, as words or images, into a form that can be processed by a machine, especially a computer or computerized device. Compare optical character recognition ( def ), pattern recognition ( def ).
12. Biochemistry. the responsiveness of one substance to another based on the reciprocal fit of a portion of their molecular shapes.

recognition

/ ˌrɛkəɡˈnɪʃən; rɪˈkɒɡnɪtɪv /

noun

1. the act of recognizing or fact of being recognized
2. acceptance or acknowledgment of a claim, duty, fact, truth, etc
3. a token of thanks or acknowledgment
4. formal acknowledgment of a government or of the independence of a country
5. an instance of a chairman granting a person the right to speak in a deliberative body, debate, etc

recognition

1. In diplomacy, the act by which one nation acknowledges that a foreign government is a legitimate government and exchanges diplomats with it. The withholding of recognition is a way for one government to show its disapproval of another.

Derived Forms

• recognitive, adjective

Other Words From

• rec·og·ni·tion·al adjective
• re·cog·ni·tive [ri-, kog, -ni-tiv], re·cog·ni·to·ry [ri-, kog, -ni-tawr-ee], adjective
• pre·rec·og·ni·tion noun
• un·re·cog·ni·to·ry adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of recognition¹

First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English recognicion, either from Old French or directly from Latin recognitiōn- (stem of recognitiō ), equivalent to recognit(us) (past participle of recognōscere; recognize ) + -iōn- -ion

Word History and Origins

Origin of recognition¹

C15: from Latin recognitiō , from recognoscere to know again, from re- + cognoscere to know, ascertain

Example Sentences

Idaho State may not have much name recognition, but the Bengals have a proud history against UCLA.

From Los Angeles Times

Tumors sabotage the process that the body's healthy cells use to avoid immune recognition and subsequent attack, allowing cancer to hide from the immune system.

From Science Daily

Body-centric data can include information such as the fingerprints used to unlock phones, face scans from facial recognition technology, and data from fitness and fertility trackers, mental health apps and digital medical records.

From Los Angeles Times

Ofgem said the £14.5m total payment is "in recognition of the impact on its customers, many of which may have faced financial difficulty".

From BBC

These stories also tend to be rehashed and retread because fame breeds fascination, of course, and name recognition helps when seeking the eyes and ears of an audience.

From New York Times

Related Words

• acceptance
• admission
• appreciation
• awareness
• concession
• perception
• realization
• respect
• understanding