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recognition

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

11 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "recognition", 11-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "recognition" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "recognition" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

recognition is aEnglishnoun. It means: The act of recognizing or the condition of being recognized (matching a current observation with a memory of a prior observation of the same entity). Pronounced /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/. It ranks #3,192 in English word frequency.

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Key facts for recognition
PropertyValue
Headwordrecognition
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/
Letters11
Frequency rank#3,192
Misspellings tracked17
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of recognition in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for recognition is 11 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,192 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 17 documented wrong-spelling variants for recognition, with forms such as "ercognition", "rceognition", and "reccognition". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English recognicion, from Middle French recognicion, recognition and its etymon Latin recognitiōnem (accusative of recognitiō), from recognitus, past participle of recognōscere. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is recognition, spelled R-E-C-O-G-N-I-T-I-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    The act of recognizing or the condition of being recognized (matching a current observation with a memory of a prior observation of the same entity).
  2. 2
    Acceptance as valid or true.
  3. 3
    Official acceptance of the status of a new government by that of another country.
  4. 4
    Honour, favourable note, or attention.
  5. 5
    The propriety consisting for antibodies to bind to some specific antigens and not to others.
  6. 6
    A return of the feu to the superior.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English recognicion, from Middle French recognicion, recognition and its etymon Latin recognitiōnem (accusative of recognitiō), from recognitus, past participle of recognōscere.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ercognition,rceognition,reccognition,recgonition,recoggnition,recogintion,recogniiton,recognision,recognitino,recognitionn,recognitoin,recognittion,recognnition,recogntiion,recongition,reocgnition,rrecognition

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for recognition

Misspelling Variants of "recognition"

ercognition11rceognition11reccognition12recgonition11recoggnition12recogintion11recogniiton11recognision11
Misspelling Variants of "recognition"

Frequency rank: #3,192 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "recognition"?
"recognition" is spelled R-E-C-O-G-N-I-T-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/.
What does "recognition" mean?
As a noun, "recognition" means: The act of recognizing or the condition of being recognized (matching a current observation with a memory of a prior observation of the same entity).
What are common misspellings of "recognition"?
Common misspellings include "ercognition", "rceognition", "reccognition", "recgonition", "recoggnition". The correct spelling is "recognition".
How do you pronounce "recognition"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "recognition" is /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "recognition"?
Inherited from Middle English recognicion, from Middle French recognicion, recognition and its etymon Latin recognitiōnem (accusative of recognitiō), from recognitus, past participle of recognōscere. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.