Other forms: recognized, recognizes, recognizing
To recognise somebody is to know who they are because you have seen them before. I recognised her at once. He did not recognise me with the beard.
The second sense is about acceptance rather than sight: to recognise a fact is to admit it, and to recognise a country or a qualification is to accept it officially. That use is common in politics and in employment. It is a state verb, so it is not usually continuous. Note the spelling — recognise in British English, recognize in American, with Oxford preferring -ize — and the silent g that almost everybody leaves out in speech and must put in when writing.
1verbrecognizeTo know somebody or something from before.
“I recognised the handwriting immediately.”
2verbtrueTo accept that something is true or valid.
“The report recognises that the timetable was unrealistic.”
3verbofficiallyTo accept something officially.
“The qualification is recognised in eleven countries.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
recognize is a way of knowing again.
Also accepted in games: recognise
Latin recognoscere is re-, again, plus cognoscere, to know — the same verb behind cognition, notice and, at a distance, know itself. To recognise is to know something for a second time, which is exactly what the word describes.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵneh₃-
Latin
recognosco
Old French
reconoistre
Middle French
reconoistre
English, today
recognize
Built from
Borrowed from Middle French reconoistre, from Old French reconoistre, from Latin recognosco, first attested in the 16th century. Displaced native English acknow (“to recognize, perceive as”), compare German erkennen and Swedish erkänna. Latin had rare recognizare (“to try by jury”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA