recollection
Americannoun
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the act or power of recollecting, or recalling to mind; remembrance.
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something that is recollected.
recollections of one's childhood.
noun
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the act of recalling something from memory; the ability to remember
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something remembered; a memory
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of recollection
1635–45; < French récollection or Medieval Latin recollēctiōn- (stem of recollēctiō ), equivalent to recollēct ( us ) ( see recollect) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
Recollection is either the process of remembering something or a specific memory. If someone says, "To the best of my recollection, I never met Ted," they're saying they tried to remember Ted and couldn’t. Basically, your memory is your recollection. You can also say your memories are recollections. You could have a recollection of a baseball game on your birthday. If you know that collecting is to gather things, it makes sense that recollecting is like the process of gathering your memories.
Vocabulary lists containing recollection
The Cay
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The Things They Carried
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Farewell to Manzanar
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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.
Winning the Oscar for “The Accidental Tourist” was a more pleasant recollection for Davis, although she was thrown by a bizarre incident as she was relaxing a few hours before the ceremony.
From Los Angeles Times • May 13, 2026
“Even in Argentina there, my recollection is there have been about three superspreader events,” said Gregory Mertz, an infectious-disease doctor at the University of New Mexico’s Health Sciences Center who studies the hantavirus.
From MarketWatch • May 5, 2026
Defence Barrister John Kearney KC put it to the witness that McCullagh has no recollection of a physical row in the bathroom - "that it didn't happen."
From BBC • Mar. 6, 2026
After the hearing, a reporter quoted Mr. Kennedy saying he’d spoken to Mr. Trump, and “his recollection and her recollection are different.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026
Oppenheimer’s recollection of his own reaction has been oft repeated; he claimed that a verse from the Sanskrit Bhagavad Gita leaped into his mind: “ ‘Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds.’
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
