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Designate vs Recognize - What's the difference?

designate | recognize |

As verbs the difference between designate and recognize

is that designate is to mark out and make known; to point out; to name; to indicate; to show; to distinguish by marks or description; to specify; as, to designate the boundaries of a country; to designate the rioters who are to be arrested while recognize is to match something or someone which one currently perceives to a memory of some previous encounter with the same entity or recognize can be to cognize again.

As an adjective designate

is designated; appointed; chosen.

designate

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Designated; appointed; chosen.
  • Verb

    (designat)
  • To mark out and make known; to point out; to name; to indicate; to show; to distinguish by marks or description; to specify; as, to designate the boundaries of a country; to designate the rioters who are to be arrested.
  • To call by a distinctive title; to name.
  • * 1912 , Stratemeyer Syndicate, Baseball Joe on the School Nine Chapter 1
  • "Yes, let 'Sister' Davis have a whack at it too," urged George Bland. Tom Davis, who was Joe Matson's particular chum, was designated "Sister" because, in an incautious moment, when first coming to Excelsior Hall, he had shown a picture of his very pretty sister, Mabel.
  • To indicate or set apart for a purpose or duty; -- with to or for; to designate an officer for or to the command of a post or station.
  • Synonyms

    * name * denominate * style * entitle * characterize * describe * denote

    Derived terms

    * designated driver * designated hitter

    recognize

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) reconoistre, from (etyl) recognoscere, first attested in the 16th century. Displaced native English , compare German erkennen.

    Alternative forms

    * recognise (non-Oxford British spelling)

    Verb

    (recogniz) (North American and Oxford British spelling)
  • To match something or someone which one currently perceives to a memory of some previous encounter with the same entity.
  • * 1900 , , (The House Behind the Cedars) , Chapter I,
  • He looked in vain into the stalls for the butcher who had sold fresh meat twice a week, on market days, and he felt a genuine thrill of pleasure when he recognized the red bandana turban of old Aunt Lyddy, the ancient negro woman who had sold him gingerbread and fried fish, and told him weird tales of witchcraft and conjuration, in the old days when, as an idle boy, he had loafed about the market-house.
  • To acknowledge the existence or legality of something; treat as valid or worthy of consideration.
  • To acknowledge or consider as something.
  • To realize or discover the nature of something; apprehend quality in; realize or admit that.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Katrina G. Claw
  • , title= Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm , volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.}}
  • To give an award.
  • To show appreciation of.
  • to recognize services by a testimonial
  • (obsolete) To review; to examine again.
  • (South)
  • (obsolete) To reconnoiter.
  • Derived terms
    * recognizability * recognizable * recognizably * recognizance * recognizant * recognization * recognizee * recognizer * recognizor

    Etymology 2

    From re-'' + ''cognize

    Alternative forms

    * re-cognize

    Verb

    (recogniz) (North American and Oxford British spelling)
  • To cognize again.