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recreational

adjectiveC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — recreation sits at #6,195mostly written

Recreational means done for fun and relaxation rather than for work. The opposite of professional, and of necessary.

It attaches to activities, vehicles and facilities, so recreational cycling, a recreational vehicle and recreational space in a town plan are all standard. There is a loaded use in recreational drugs, meaning taken for pleasure rather than prescribed, and the phrase does a lot of quiet work in arguments about legalisation. The noun recreation covers the whole idea and school timetables once used it for playtime.

Marcos AndréCropped by uploader to remove watermark. · CC BY 2.0

Definitions of recreational

  1. 1adjectiverecreationalDone for enjoyment rather than as work or duty.C1

    “The lake is used for recreational sailing.”

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    recreātiō

  2. Old French

    recreacion

  3. Middle French

    recreacion

  4. Middle English

    recreacion

  5. English

    recreation

  6. English, today

    recreational

From recreation + -al. recreation comes from Middle English recreacion, from Middle French recreacion, from Old French recreacion, from Latin recreātiō.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 10 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

recreational in the wild

  • In popular practice, recreational drug use is generally tolerated as a social behaviour, rather than perceived as the medical condition of self-medication.

    Recreational drug use

  • The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) has seventeen Special Interest Groups which includes a recreational math group called SIGMAA-Rec.

    Recreational mathematics

  • Mathematical competitions (such as those sponsored by mathematical associations) are also categorized under recreational mathematics.

    Recreational mathematics

  • In addition to fishing for food, people commonly fish as a recreational pastime.

    Fishing

  • A recreational vehicle, often abbreviated as RV, or a camping car, is a motor vehicle that includes living quarters designed for accommodation.

    Recreational vehicle

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the recreātiō family

recreation

recreational — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others