recant

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (1)  · 
The pope had threatened Luther with excommunication if he did not recant, and the threat was now fulfilled.

View all »
Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. transitive verb To make a formal retraction or disavowal of (a statement or belief to which one has previously committed oneself).
  2. intransitive verb To make a formal retraction or disavowal of a previously held statement or belief.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • Affirmation, offer, deliberation, recant, and finally, contemplation are all Orange had been doing over Blackberry Bold†™ s release. —  Cell Phone Beat
  • Kolpack was asked to recant or denounce her thesis, as well as give an oath of loyalty and a profession of faith. —  National Catholic Reporter
  • We must get her to publicly recant, if not repent.
  • In demanding that British Bishop Richard Williamson recant, the Vatican did little to mitigate the public relations damage done by the decision of Pope Benedict XVI to return this Holocaust-denier to the church. —  Freep.com - RSS
  • The fact that your are conversing with a Muslim right now is a mercy from the Lord; a chance for you to recant, retrace your steps and repent unto Him. —  Brain Blogger
 

Tags

recant hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 186 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

recant:   recanted
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin recantāre : re-, re- + cantāre, to sing, frequentative of canere; see kan- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Old French recanter, rechanter, sing again, =Provencal rechantar =Portuguese recantar =Italian ricantare, sing again, from Latin recantare, sing back, reëcho, also sing again, repeat in singing, recant, recall, revoke, charm back or away. from re-, back, + cantare, sing: see chant and cant.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/rəˈkænt/
by American Heritage

Charts

frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word several times a year.

Recently looked up

discriminator · slower · deplete · pouvoir · effigy

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich