recount
Americanverb (used with object)
-
recounts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
recounted,
past participle, past
-
recounting
present participle
-
to relate or narrate; tell in detail; give the facts or particulars of.
- Synonyms:
- describe
-
to narrate in order.
-
to tell one by one; enumerate.
verb
Synonym Usage
See relate.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
recountsimple
-
recountssimple
-
have recountedperfect
-
has recountedperfect
-
am recountingprogressive
-
are recountingprogressive
-
is recountingprogressive
-
have been recountingperfect progressive
-
has been recountingperfect progressive
Past
-
recountedsimple
-
had recountedperfect
-
was recountingprogressive
-
were recountingprogressive
-
had been recountingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of recount
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English recounten, from Middle French reconter, equivalent to re- + conter “to tell, count.” See re-, count 1
Explanation
As a verb, recount can mean either "tell the story of" or "add up again." As a noun, recount usually refers to the second (or third or fourth) tallying of votes in a close election. The word count comes from the old French conter, which means "add up" or "tell a story." Here's a story to recount (narrate): In an election featuring Count Dracula and Count Johnson, Dracula wins by two votes, so Johnson demands a recount (an adding up of the votes again). The officials recount (count again) the votes, and this time find Count Johnson the winner. Dracula threatens to bite the officials and they quickly change their minds.
Vocabulary lists containing recount
Vocabulary of the Common Core
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Electoral Elocution: The Verbiage of Voting
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List 8
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
They recount Lord Ram's exile and his wife Sita's abduction by Ravan, culminating in the battle that symbolises the victory of good over evil.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
The novel then shifts to recount the “contrapuntal fate” of Adelaide Percheron, an orphan raised by her grandmother in Pondicherry, a French settlement in India.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
More than 2,500 ballots had been misplaced in the original count, but were found while doing the recount.
From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026
To speak of trauma is not only to recount an event; it is also to expose fear, helplessness, and loss of control.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
With Andrew Jackson’s popularity undiminished after the Civil War, visitors flocked to the plantation to hear Alfred recount tales of life with the president.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
“When we had everybody audition, they had to sing a punk rock song,” Stew recounts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
Once every vote has been included in the final results, and after processes such as recounts have been completed, the election results are certified - first at the local, county, level.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
Throughout the book, Krakauer recounts his attempt to summit Mount Everest the year earlier in what would become, at the time, the mountain’s deadliest season.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2026
McKay Coppins’s recent biography of Mitt Romney recounts how supporter Donald Trump reacted to Mr. Romney’s 2012 loss to Barack Obama.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
She recounts events from her spiritualist days, delighted when he finds the endeavor as absurd as she had at the time.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
Two months after arriving, he contracted typhoid fever and was hospitalized for the first time in his life, as he recounted to Allen.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2026
Professional investors who spoke with MarketWatch recounted examples where expectations were dashed by actual returns.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2026
Bambino’s story is one of many amusing anecdotes recounted by Susannah Fullerton in “Great Writers and the Cats Who Owned Them,” a charming catalog of felines who have helped shape Western literature.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
In the first half of “Peck & Peck,” we learn that Batter has been named after a family dog whose superhero escapades were recounted in reverent tones throughout his childhood by his mother, Rainey.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
There were many stories this night; several recounted in tongues I knew not to groups of four or five; a few sung; some ancient tales told.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
"I stood in Stourbridge and watched families lose everything," he said on Thursday, recounting the night of a wildfire that destroyed 19 homes in the West Midlands in August.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026
Tanden can reflexively rattle off the particularities of housing protocols I couldn’t begin to decode; she titters with satisfaction upon recounting the intricacies of a long-discarded Australian cap-and-trade proposal.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026
“We had a lot of work to do,” Wang said, recounting his early months at Meta on the Core Memory podcast earlier this year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
An intricate, thrilling procedural recounting the race to rescue 33 Chilean miners trapped for 69 days more than half a mile underground.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
He started by recounting to Mammachi how much her family had done for his.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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