Synonyms

recognize

American

[rek-uhg-nahyz] / ˈrɛk əgˌnaɪz /

especially British, recognise

verb (used with object)

to identify as something or someone previously seen, known, etc..

He had changed so much that one could scarcely recognize him.
to identify from knowledge of appearance or characteristics.

I recognized him from the description.
They recognized him as a fraud.
to perceive as existing or true; realize.

to be the first to recognize a fact.

Synonyms:

concede, grant, understand, appreciate, acknowledge
to acknowledge as the person entitled to speak at a particular time.

The Speaker recognized the congressman from Maine.
to acknowledge formally as entitled to treatment as a political unit.

The United States promptly recognized Israel.
to acknowledge or accept formally a specified factual or legal situation.

to recognize a successful revolutionary regime as the de facto government of the country.
to acknowledge or treat as valid.

to recognize a claim.
to acknowledge acquaintance with, as by a greeting, handshake, etc.
to show appreciation of (achievement, service, merit, etc.), as by some reward, public honor, or the like.
Law. to acknowledge (an illegitimate child) as one's own.
Biochemistry, Immunology. to bind with, cleave, or otherwise react to (another substance) as a result of fitting its molecular shape or a portion of its shape.

recognize British

/ ˈrɛkəɡˌnaɪz /

verb

to perceive (a person, creature, or thing) to be the same as or belong to the same class as something previously seen or known; know again
to accept or be aware of (a fact, duty, problem, etc)

to recognize necessity
to give formal acknowledgment of the status or legality of (a government, an accredited representative, etc)
to grant (a person) the right to speak in a deliberative body, debate, etc
to give a token of thanks for (a service rendered, etc)
to make formal acknowledgment of (a claim, etc)
to show approval or appreciation of (something good or pleasing)
to acknowledge or greet (a person), as when meeting by chance
(intr) to enter into a recognizance

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of recognize

First recorded in 1425–75; recogn(ition) ( def. ) + -ize ( def. ); replacing late Middle English racunnysen, recognisen, from Old French reconuiss-, stem of reconuistre, from Latin recognōscere, equivalent to re- re- ( def. ) + cognōscere “to know ¹ ( def. ) ”; see cognition ( def. )

Explanation

When, at a meeting, you wave your hand wildly, you want to be recognized. When the chairperson finally says, “I recognize the man who is about to fall out of his seat,” don't forget what you wanted to say. The verb recognize comes from the Latin root words re (again) and cognoscere (to know) – literally “to know again” or “to identify.” If your own identical twin doesn't recognize you, you might be wearing too much makeup. Recognize can also mean “to acknowledge” or “to appreciate.” When you recognize the donors for their generous contributions to your fundraising event, your parents say, “You're welcome.”

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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:

recognize recognizes recognized recognizing

The good ones recognize and support real teaching.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

The standard process requires doctors to collect a patient's immune cells and send them to a specialized facility, where the cells are genetically modified to recognize cancer.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026

“We recognize that all of us are called to something.”

From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2026

My colleague Alex Galbraith recently argued that food may be where consumers most easily recognize the otherwise abstract mechanics of private equity.

From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2026

“Let me get the front door locked and I’ll go up with you! I—I want to see how long it takes them to recognize you.”

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

Like virtually everyone in her generation, Kay recognizes the ground broken by Taylor Swift.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

And as one exceptional son recognizes in another, the difference between how we’re born and what we become is who nurtures us.

From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026

Gender-responsive policing recognizes that people of different genders can experience crime, victimization, and interactions with law enforcement differently.

From Slate ● Oct. 2, 2026

Ray also recognizes that one of the reasons that travel can be an exercise in self-reflection is because of the confined means by which modern travelers are conveyed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

The auditory cortex also recognizes the location of different sound sources in space, and can identify and segregate different auditory objects.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

There was a time when many would have recognized those lines from Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel, “The Sun Also Rises.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

I think an important data point is that a federal court at the time had recognized a First Amendment right to televise executions.

From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2026

But there were moments of his performance in which I recognized a young version of my own childhood monster.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026

"This work adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that persistent immune dysfunction may play a far larger role in chronic fatigue-related illnesses than previously recognized," said Prof Pshezhetskiy.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026

But her red-and.gold-plaid gown with full petticoats, which I recognized she’d sewn from her fortune-teller costume, was the envy of all.

From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan

Even after recognizing other financial benefits of ownership, such as a tax code that puts a thumb on the scale toward buying, opportunity cost makes the returns to homeownership considerably less spectacular.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

And it means recognizing that slowing America’s most responsible developers will accomplish little if dangerous actors continue moving ahead.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026

The strongest associations appeared in frontotemporal regions of the brain involved in recognizing words, speaking fluently, and temporarily holding language information in mind.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026

It’s about finding material ways to pay down that debt, and also about recognizing how much the debt has weighed us down – all of us, white and black and brown and all other shades.

From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2014

For a second they stood quite still, wands directed at each other’s chests; then, recognizing each other, they stowed their wands beneath their cloaks and started walking briskly in the same direction.

From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023