recant
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
recantsimple
-
recantssimple
-
have recantedperfect
-
has recantedperfect
-
am recantingprogressive
-
are recantingprogressive
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is recantingprogressive
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have been recantingperfect progressive
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has been recantingperfect progressive
Past
-
recantedsimple
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had recantedperfect
-
was recantingprogressive
-
were recantingprogressive
-
had been recantingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of recant
1525–35; < Latin recantāre to sing back, sing again, equivalent to re- re- + cantāre, frequentative of canere to sing; cf. chant
Explanation
If you're someone who speaks before you think, you may need to recant, or take back, that overly honest assessment of your friend's new haircut. Recant comes from two Latin roots: the prefix re-, meaning "back," and the verb cantare, meaning "to sing." It has been suggested that recant was first used when someone reversed a charm, curse, or some other type of magical spell that would have been chanted or sung. Regardless of whether this is true or not, we suggest that you refrain from singing when you need to recant — unless you've been casting nasty spells on people.
Vocabulary lists containing recant
100 SAT words Beginning with "R"
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Lincoln Inaugural Address (March 1861)
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Just Mercy
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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:
Baroness Lawrence said: "Any person who expresses views like these and does not recant is an obvious danger to society and must remain in custody."
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2025
Years later, he said he was pressured by the FBI to recant his story.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2025
The most recent petitions discussing Autry’s decision to recant his testimony were filed in Hardin County Circuit Court on Jan. 22, based on what Adams’ lawyer refers to as new evidence.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 27, 2024
She withdrew the allegation later, but Trump's biographer points out that her alimony payments were likely in danger if she did not recant.
From Salon ● May 1, 2023
While Chapman had suggested that Myers must have been pressured to recant, the district attorney presented no actual evidence to support that claim, which made the judge's ruling hard to understand.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
“It recants some of the language in their letter, which I never adopted.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 29, 2022
Faced with doubting, undermining and hounding, Marie recants her story, but the narrative only gets more complicated from there.
From New York Times ● Sep. 1, 2019
Another is that any witness who recants has shown a willingness to lie under oath.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2017
In the recording, the victim recants his accusations and blamed the issue on his parents.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 24, 2017
Sometimes though, for the women, they’re for a nun who recants.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
When war was declared, David recanted his previously strong pro-German views and toed a patriotic line.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
Capitalwatch fully recanted its report alleging AppLovin served as a “laundering machine.”
From Barron's ● Feb. 13, 2026
Three days later, he recanted that confession and spent the rest of his life professing his innocence, claiming that he was made a patsy for the real assassin, a man he called “Raoul.”
From Slate ● Dec. 1, 2025
But in a 2008 interview with a US historian, she recanted the statement, reportedly saying: "That part's not true."
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2025
Step-by-step, in a quiet monotone voice, Burkhart recanted.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Mandelson's comments go further than others in government in recanting previous criticism of Trump.
From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2025
That information, the recanting, was initially hidden from Glossip, and he only found out about it a few years ago.
From Slate ● Sep. 30, 2024
Smithline had time to refile her complaint, but instead turned on Wood a month later, recanting her allegations and accusing the actor and others of manipulating her into making false accusations against Manson.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2023
As for Voirrey, she never changed her story on Gef and died in 2005 without recanting.
From National Geographic ● Sep. 19, 2023
Owning, disowning, recanting, recharting a hateful course of events to make sense of her complicity.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
