Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An alternating back-and-forth movement.
  • noun The act or fact of reciprocating; interchange.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The process of taking the reciprocal (of a curve, proposition, or quantity).
  • noun In geometry, the correlation of two reciprocal figures. See reciprocal, a., 4.
  • noun A going back and forth; alternation of movement.
  • noun The act of reciprocating; interchange of acts; a mutual giving and returning: as, the reciprocation of kindnesses.
  • noun In logic, the relation of two propositions each the converse of the other.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of reciprocating; interchange of acts; a mutual giving and returning.
  • noun Alternate recurrence or action.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of reciprocating; interchange of acts; a mutual giving and returning; as, the reciprocation of kindness.
  • noun Alternate recurrence or action; as, the reciprocation of the sea in the flow and ebb of tides; oscillation.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the act of making or doing something in return
  • noun alternating back-and-forth movement
  • noun mutual interaction; the activity of reciprocating or exchanging (especially information)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

reciprocate +‎ -ion

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word reciprocation.

Examples

  • The concept of "free riding" emphasizes the fact that traditional offline institutions expect and require reciprocation from the majority of their members for their continued existence.

    Boing Boing 2008

  • I feel that an after luncheon speaker should reciprocate as best he may and the only thing I can do, by way of reciprocation is to get on with my subject.

    Munitions and Common Sense 1935

  • If he’s been and continues to be good to you, reciprocation is the honorable thing to do.

    gardener thoughts 2007

  • He really believes in nature, and values life for the power of what Johnson calls reciprocation of benevolence.

    Hours in a Library, Volume I. (of III.) Leslie Stephen 1868

  • There's been a genuine reciprocation, which is an essential element of any good exchange.

    WalesOnline - Home 2011

  • It does seem that some kind of reciprocation is in order.

    The WritingYA Weblog: Odd Lots tanita davis 2007

  • A person might feel suspicious when you hand him a flower, for example, because he might think you're trying to invoke the very strong psychological phenomenon of "reciprocation": When someone gives you something or does something for you, you feel you must reciprocate.

    Slate Magazine 2009

  • A person might feel suspicious when you hand him a flower, for example, because he might think you're trying to invoke the very strong psychological phenomenon of "reciprocation": When someone gives you something or does something for you, you feel you must reciprocate.

    Slate Magazine 2009

  • It was just the kind of reciprocation toward your fellow man the Bible demands.

    2theadvocate.com Latest News 2009

  • First, in subsequent negotiations and interactions, we can be more cognizant of the techniques that the sales people were using; "Oh, this is the 'reciprocation' technique, don't feel that you need to reciprocate.

    Jill Konrath - Selling to Big Companies 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.