recognitory

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adjective

Pertaining to recognizing (matching a current perception with a memory).

Scrabble 17

Meanings

adjectiverecognitory (not comparable)
  1. Pertaining to, or connected with, recognition.
    1. not comparablePertaining to recognizing (matching a current perception with a memory).

      A pun, and its recognitory laugh, must be co-instantaneous.

      1823, Charles Lamb, “Distant Correspondents”, in Essays of Elia, London: Moxon, published 1836, page 244
      3 more examples

      […] two dogs, with a snarling sort of bark, made their appearance from a neighbouring pig-stye, but, instead of following up the attack, came forward whimpering and whining a recognitory welcome to Jim, while they described sundry circles around him expressive of their joy at the meeting.

      1852, Mrs. Lorenzo N. Nunn, chapter 4, in The Militia Major, volume 2, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, page 64

      Glancing across to our corner, he nodded to Francis, a flashing-eyed, recognitory nod, as from one power to another.

      1970, C. P. Snow, chapter 5, in Last Things, New York: Scribner, page 43

      […] we must be cautious about inferring the same recognitory processes are going on in infancy as in adulthood. The fact that an infant dishabituates to a male face after seeing a series of female faces, tells us nothing about whether any of these stimuli seem familiar to the infant, or carry the conceptual meaning involved in the judgment, “Oh, that’s not a woman.”

      1990, Jean Matter Mandler, “Recall of Events by Preverbal Children”, in Adele Diamond, editor, The Development and Neural Bases of Higher Cognitive Functions, The New York Academy of Sciences, page 488
    2. not comparablePertaining to recognizing (acknowledging the existence, status or validity of something).

      […] there is not one decisive intimation, not one conclusive sentence in those authors, nor one decree in those councils, recognitory of the existence or explanatory of the duties of such a body.

      1841, Archibald Boyd, chapter 8, in Episcopacy and Presbytery, London: S. Seeley and W. Burnside, page 293

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

recognitory. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/recognitory

MLA

“recognitory.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/recognitory. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “recognitory,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/recognitory.

Source: recognitory on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.