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Recognize vs Affirm - What's the difference?

recognize | affirm |

As verbs the difference between recognize and affirm

is that recognize is to match something or someone which one currently perceives to a memory of some previous encounter with the same entity while affirm is to agree, verify or concur; to answer positively.

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.
  • affirm

    English

    Verb

  • To agree, verify or concur; to answer positively.
  • She affirmed that she would go when I asked her.
  • To assert positively; to tell with confidence; to aver; to maintain as true.
  • * Bible, Acts xxv. 19
  • Jesus, whom Paul affirmed to be alive
  • To support or encourage.
  • They did everything they could to affirm the children's self-confidence.
  • To make firm; to confirm, or ratify; especially (legal) to assert or confirm, as a judgment, decree, or order, brought before an appelate court for review.
  • Antonyms

    * deny

    See also

    * affirmative action * confirm