Word.ws English Dictionary

recognitory

recognitory adjective: pertaining to recognizing (matching a current perception with a memory).

Adjective

recognitory (not comparable)

  1. Pertaining 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
    • […] 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
  2. Pertaining 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

Examples of recognitory in a sentence

  • 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.1990, Jean Matter Mandler, “Recall of Events by Preverbal Children”, in Adele Diamond, editor, The Development and Neural Bases of Higher...

Synonyms of recognitory

Origin of recognitory

From recognit(ion) + -ory.

Questions about recognitory

What does recognitory mean?
Recognitory means pertaining to recognizing (matching a current perception with a memory).
How do you use recognitory in a sentence?
Glancing across to our corner, he nodded to Francis, a flashing-eyed, recognitory nod, as from one power to another.
What part of speech is recognitory?
Recognitory is an adjective.

Words near recognitory in the dictionary

  1. recognitional
  2. recognitions
  3. recognitive
  4. recognitor
  5. recognitors
  6. recognitory
  7. recogniz'd
  8. recognizabilities
  9. recognizability
  10. recognizable
  11. recognizableness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: recognitory (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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