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Recognize vs Remember - What's the difference?

recognize | remember |

In obsolete terms the difference between recognize and remember

is that recognize is to reconnoiter while remember is to put in mind; to remind (also used reflexively.

As verbs the difference between recognize and remember

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 remember is to recall from one's memory; to have an image in one's memory.

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.
  • remember

    English

    Alternative forms

    * remembre (obsolete)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To recall from one's memory; to have an image in one's memory.
  • * {{quote-book, 1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, chapter=The Tutor's Daughter, Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, page=266 citation
  • , passage=In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=6 citation , passage=‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. […]’.}}
  • To memorize; to put something into memory.
  • To not forget (to do something required)
  • To convey greetings from.
  • (obsolete) To put in mind; to remind (also used reflexively)
  • * 1610 , , act 1 scene 2
  • Since thou dost give me pains, / Let me remember thee what thou hast promis'd, / Which is not yet perform'd me.
  • * Chapman
  • My friends remembered me of home.
  • * , Secret Parting, lines 5-7
  • ''But soon, remembering her how brief the whole
    ''Of joy, which its own hours annihilate,
    ''Her set gaze gathered
  • To engage in the process of recalling memories.
  • Usage notes

    * In sense 1 this is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . * In sense 3 this is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. * See

    Synonyms

    * recall * reminisce

    Derived terms

    * rememberer * remembrance

    See also

    * recollect * recollection * remind