recollection

[rek-uh-lek-shuhn]

noun

1. the act or power of recollecting, or recalling to mind; remembrance.

   Synonyms: memory, recall

2. something that is recollected: recollected.

   recollections of one's childhood.

   Synonyms: memoir, memory

Other Word Forms

• misrecollection noun
• nonrecollection noun
• self-recollection noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of recollection¹

1635–45; < French récollection or Medieval Latin recollēctiōn- (stem of recollēctiō ), equivalent to recollēct ( us ) ( recollect ) + -iōn- -ion

Example Sentences

The new project is clearly out to teach us things and does, specifically why the Hemsworths travel so far north to prompt the elder Hemsworth’s recollections.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Each viewer’s recollection is summoned and given autonomy.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

He said the paper had produced "no contemporaneous record or corroborating evidence to support these disputed recollections from nearly 50 years ago".

Read more on Barron's

Sam Bevan, 33, who lives in St Julian's, says he has no recollection of the crash on 11 November which left him with severe concussion and cuts to his face.

Read more on BBC

However, she did have a distant recollection of being given a piggyback ride by Dr. Westminster, the Swanburne veterinarian, when she was still a very small girl.

Read more on Literature

Related Words

• memoir 
• remembrance 
• reminiscence