recollect

American  

[rek-uh-lekt] / ˌrɛk əˈlɛkt /

verb (used with object)

• recollects,
  present (3rd person singular)
• recollected,
  past participle,  past
• recollecting
  present participle

1. to recall to mind; recover knowledge of by memory; remember.

   Antonyms:

   forget

2. to absorb (oneself ) in spiritual meditation, especially during prayer.

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verb (used without object)

• recollects,
  present (3rd person singular)
• recollected,
  past participle,  past
• recollecting
  present participle

1. to have a recollection; remember.

recollect British  

/ ˌrɛkəˈlɛkt /

verb

1. (when tr, often takes a clause as object) to recall from memory; remember

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Synonym Usage

See remember.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• recollectiveness
  noun
• misrecollect
  verb
• nonrecollective
  adjective
• recollective
  adjective
• self-recollective
  adjective
• unrecollective
  adjective
• recollectively
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• recollecting
  present
• recollected
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• recollect
  simple
• recollects
  simple
• have recollected
  perfect
• has recollected
  perfect
• am recollecting
  progressive
• are recollecting
  progressive
• is recollecting
  progressive
• have been recollecting
  perfect progressive
• has been recollecting
  perfect progressive

Past

• recollected
  simple
• had recollected
  perfect
• was recollecting
  progressive
• were recollecting
  progressive
• had been recollecting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will recollect
  simple
• will have recollected
  perfect
• will be recollecting
  progressive
• will have been recollecting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of recollect

First recorded in 1550–60; from Medieval Latin recollēctus, past participle of recolligere “to remember, recollect” ( Latin: “to gather up again”); see re-, collect ¹

Explanation

To recollect is to remember. You might struggle to recollect your high school French but have no trouble recollecting every ingredient in your dad's cinnamon roll recipe. If you ask your grandfather to recollect his experiences in high school, you want him to remember some great stories from his youth. The Latin root word, recolligere, means "to collect again," from the prefix re, "again," and colligere, "gather or collect." You can think of recollect as meaning "to gather again from your memory."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

recollect recollects recollected recollecting

Even decades later, Jean Dornan, the protagonist of Julia Langbein’s smart, poignant and involving novel “Dear Monica Lewinsky,” can’t recollect her own first love in tranquility.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026

We made a registry to allow our friends and family to help us recollect the basics.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026

I recollect that my mother left her jewelry box and its contents to me.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 4, 2025

"I'm trying to recollect when I became aware of it," she says.

From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2024

This his ear, his neck, his elbow seemed to recollect.

From "Typical American" by Gish Jen

Minho goes first, moving carefully as he recollects the steps to 2Pm's viral track My House, with its famous chorus: "I wanna take you to my house."

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

“It was a very odd experience,” he recollects with a laugh.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2025

She recollects watching the 2015 All Star Game with her granddad.

From New York Times ● May 11, 2023

“Cokeville recollects ‘miracle’ of 1986,” Deseret News, May 15, 2006.

From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2022

“Terryl, say good-bye to your little brother,” she recollects him saying.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel

Happily, Mr. Hamilton, who retains his boyish handsomeness, infuses this recollected ardor with convincing feeling.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 5, 2026

And even if it is recollected, mechanical recycling struggles with mixed waste streams.

From Slate ● Nov. 24, 2023

Rather, Lerner is working a seam between what is recollected and what is imagined.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2023

Discussing his time at school, Spielberg said his "only ticket" to popularity was making small movies and recollected getting the captain of the football team to dedicate a whole Saturday to star in a film.

From BBC ● Dec. 17, 2022

“Some of the professors here recollected him as being a scamp,” the university said.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Greene nearly swooned recollecting the interaction in an interview afterward.

From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2024

Queen Camilla empathised with Mr Oborne, telling him: "It must be very difficult recollecting it all."

From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2024

“We were scared out of our wits,” Dr. Breman, recollecting his pioneer mission, told a National Institutes of Health newsletter in 2014, as a new and even deadlier Ebola outbreak raged that year.

From New York Times ● Apr. 22, 2024

Like the Sto:lo, many Coast Salish groups in the Pacific Northwest have oral traditions recollecting dogs whose coiled undercoats were spun into fibers and woven into elaborately patterned blankets.

From Science Magazine ● Dec. 13, 2023

Miss Kenton, I thought, became visibly happier when I talked about the house and soon we were recollecting together various old memories, frequently laughing over them.

From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro