recommendation

American  

[rek-uh-men-day-shuhn, -muhn-] / ˌrɛk ə mɛnˈdeɪ ʃən, -mən- /

noun

• recommendations
  plural

1. an act of recommending.

2. a letter or the like recommending a person or thing.

3. representation in favor of a person or thing.

4. anything that serves to recommend a person or thing, or induce acceptance or favor.

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recommendation British  

/ ˌrɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən /

noun

1. the act of recommending

2. something that recommends, esp a letter presenting someone as suitable for a job, etc

3. something that is recommended, such as a course of action

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Usage

Spelling tips for recommendation The word recommendation is hard to spell because it is tricky to know whether the c, the m, and/or the d is doubled. How to spell recommendation: The easiest way to remember how to spell recommend is to break it into three parts: re - com - mend - ation. You can keep the first three sections in mind with the sentence: "I recommend that you rely commonly on mending." The suffix -ation is used to indicate nouns of action and appears in many other words, like starvation and regulation.

Synonym Usage

See advice.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• prerecommendation
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• recommendations
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of recommendation

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English recommendacion, from Medieval Latin recommendātiōn-, stem of recommendātiō, from recommendāt(us) (past participle of recommendāre; see recommend) + -iō -ion

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Explanation

If you give someone a recommendation, you're saying, "try this, it's good" or "this is the best way to proceed," or "this person will do a great job." The noun recommendation stems from the Middle Latin word recommend, meaning "praise" or "present as worthy." Policy makers have made a strong recommendation to implement renewable energy initiatives to alleviate our dependence on fossil fuels. It used to be that you carried a letter of recommendation from a prominent person and used it as an introduction to polite society in an unfamiliar place, but nowadays, such a letter simply explains why someone is qualified for a particular job or school.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

recommendation recommendations

A recommendation to increase the minimum wage has been accepted by the social security minister.

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026

Google has responded by trying to tweak YouTube’s recommendation algorithms to suppress such content.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026

The appeal was heard this month with a non-binding recommendation due within 90 days.

From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026

For travelers, meanwhile, the old advice still applies: Before taking the chatbot’s recommendation, check the price somewhere else.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2026

I just casually sort of asked for a letter of recommendation from one of the most powerful women in the media.

From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner

One of the summit's major outcomes is the "global review": a set of concrete recommendations for turning lagging pledges into action and speeding up progress to the 2030 deadline.

From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026

Customers have come in with recommendations from ChatGPT, relaying them to these athletes who, little do they know, have tried nearly every shoe imaginable because they run 100-plus miles a week.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

He will make recommendations to the government later this year.

From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026

That doesn’t mean you need to dismiss a travel influencer’s recommendations entirely, however.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 28, 2026

Outside, as I’m dropping off the food, the grandparents’ jokes and laughter rise, along with grumbling about medical dietary recommendations.

From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith

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Related Words

• charge
• endorsement
• guidance
• instruction
• judgment
• order
• proposal
• proposition
• sanction
• suggestion
• support

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