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PlainSpell

recollect

/ɹɛkəˈlɛkt/verb

recollect is a verb meaning “To recall; to collect one's thoughts again, especially about past events” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-E-C-O-L-L-E-C-T and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 2 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does recollect mean?

verb

  1. 1

    To recall; to collect one's thoughts again, especially about past events.

    I remember the concert clearly, but I can't recollect why I had decided to go there.

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo collect (things) together again.

  3. 3

    To compose oneself.

noun

as Recollect
  1. 1

    A member of a French reform branch of the Order of Friars Minor, commonly known as the Franciscans.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce recollect?

  • UK /ɹɛkəˈlɛkt/
  • US /ɹɛkəˈlɛkt/

As a verb (“To collect (things) together again”): /ɹiːkəˈlɛkt/, /ɹiːkəˈlɛkt/.

Recollect has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-recollect.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-recollect_(re-).wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of recollect

  • recollects present, singular, he/she/it
  • recollecting participle, present
  • recollected participle, past
  • re-collect

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is recollect?

Recollect appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 42,145th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Words people confuse with recollect

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

re-collect vs recollect0 B

Also written: re-collect (one word or two).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Recollect in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchse souvenir, se rappeler (to recall past events), récollet (a member of a French reform branch of the Order…)
Germansich erinnern, sich entsinnen, gedenken (to recall past events)
Portugueserecordar, lembrar (to recall past events)
Spanishrebobinar (to recall past events)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does recollect come from?

Borrowed from Medieval Latin recollectus (“remembered, composed”), from Latin recolligo (“gather again, recover”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).