recital
Americannoun
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a musical entertainment given usually by a single performer or by a performer and one or more accompanists.
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a similar entertainment in a field other than music.
a dance recital.
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a program or concert by dance or music students to demonstrate their achievements or progress.
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an act or instance of reciting.
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a formal or public delivery of something memorized.
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a detailed statement.
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an account, narrative, or description.
He gave a recital of the things he'd been doing since we'd last seen him.
noun
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a musical performance by a soloist or soloists Compare concert
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the act of reciting or repeating something learned or prepared
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an account, narration, or description
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a detailed statement of facts, figures, etc
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(often plural) law the preliminary statement in a deed showing the reason for its existence and leading up to and explaining the operative part
Synonym Usage
See narrative.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of recital
Explanation
The hardest part about piano lessons is having to give a recital, or to demonstrate what you've learned in front of an audience. You can also use the noun recital to describe the telling of a story. Your uncle might be famous for boring people at parties with his recital of youthful Boy Scout adventures, for example. In the 1500s, recital was strictly a legal term, the "statement of relevant facts," but the musical meaning had come into use by the 1800s. The root is the Latin word recitare, "repeat from memory."
Vocabulary lists containing recital
Matilda
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Drama
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On the Come Up
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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.
Born in California to Polish parents, the musician gave her first recital at the age of four, and debuted with a full orchestra in Paris aged seven.
From BBC • Apr. 23, 2026
That recital began a day the likes of which no British royal has experienced in centuries.
From BBC • Feb. 20, 2026
The recital acted like a religious experience in which a rarefied atmosphere befits radiance.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 19, 2026
Last week, the Samoan tenor Pene Pati made his North American solo recital debut with pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 1, 2025
Sometime when Jessica was in the sixth grade, she and her mother had gone to a place called World of Dance or Dance World to pick up tickets for a recital Jessica was in.
From "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott
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.
