Re-sign or resign?
re-sign is a verb meaning “To sign again; to provide one's signature again”; resign is a verb meaning “To give up; to relinquish ownership of”. re-sign is written with a hyphen and resign as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between re-sign and resign?
| re-sign | resign | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb | verb |
| Meaning | To sign again; to provide one's signature again To sign a contract renewing or restarting a professional relationship, such as that of a professional athlete with a sports team | To give up; to relinquish ownership of To hand over (something to someone), place into the care or control of another |
| Example | none recorded | I am resigning in protest of the unfair treatment of our employees |
| Forms | re-signs, re-signing, re-signed | resigns, resigning, resigned |
| Pronunciation | /ɹiːˈsaɪn/ | /ɹɪˈzaɪn/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 9.3 times per million words |
Sources: re-sign and resign in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of re-sign and resign
re-sign
- 1
To sign again; to provide one's signature again
- 2
To sign a contract renewing or restarting a professional relationship, such as that of a professional athlete with a sports team
resign
- 1
To give up; to relinquish ownership of
- 2
To hand over (something to someone), place into the care or control of another
- 3
To voluntarily leave (a job or position), in particular a hard-fought position of high status
I am resigning in protest of the unfair treatment of our employees
- 4
To submit passively; to give up as hopeless or inevitable
He had no choice but to resign the game and let his opponent become the champion
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, re-sign or resign?
re-sign is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; resign 9.3 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search re-sign vs resign?
“re-sign vs resign” is searched about 1,300 times a month on Google and 50 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“resign vs re-sign”, “re-sign or resign”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.