recollect

play

verb rec·ol·lect \ˌre-kə-ˈlekt\

Definition of recollect

transitive verb
1 : to bring back to the level of conscious awareness : remember trying to recollect the name
2 : to remind (oneself) of something temporarily forgotten
intransitive verb
: to call something to mind

See recollect defined for English-language learners

See recollect defined for kids

Examples of recollect in a Sentence

I've been trying to recollect what happened.
I don't recollect telling him anything, but maybe I did.
She couldn't recollect who had mentioned his name in the first place.
From what I recollect, they said four of them were coming.

Recent Examples of recollect from the Web

From time to time, so Vera recollected, said Austerlitz, Maximilian would tell the tale of how once . . .

— james wood, The New Yorker, "W. G. Sebald, Humorist," 31 May 2017
Years later, internees would recollect the cold, the heat, the wind, the dust—and the isolation.

— Smithsonian, "The Injustice of Japanese-American Internment Camps Resonates Strongly to This Day," 2 May 2017
Across the road is the Power Hall which houses engines of all shapes and sizes, recollecting Manchester’s industrial history.

— sophie brown, WIRED, "The Manchester Museum of Science & Industry," 13 June 2011

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'recollect.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of recollect

Medieval Latin recollectus, past participle of recolligere, from Latin, to gather again

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1559

See Words from the same year

Synonym Discussion of recollect

remember, recollect, recall, remind, reminisce mean to bring an image or idea from the past into the mind. remember implies a keeping in memory that may be effortless or unwilled. remembers that day as though it were yesterday recollect implies a bringing back to mind what is lost or scattered. as near as I can recollect recall suggests an effort to bring back to mind and often to re-create in speech. can't recall the words of the song remind suggests a jogging of one's memory by an association or similarity. that reminds me of a story reminisce implies a casual often nostalgic recalling of experiences long past and gone. old college friends like to reminisce