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Glite Dictionary
👀 To identify 💡 To realize ✅ To officially accept 🏅 To show appreciation 🧬 To detect (biology)
to recognize

to recognize

28 6.9
To identify and react to a specific substance in the body, like a germ
  • verb
  • /ˈrɛkəɡnaɪz/
  • Specialized
translation icon : reconocer
  • Their work suggests that employees recognize that the implicit company-employee contract is changing.
  • recognize the antigen
  • antibodies recognize antigens
  • recognize the virus

The question is, do we know the language that those cells recognize?

Examples

  • The immune system actually can recognize self and destroy non self.

  • Any incoming foreign DNA is recognized as non-self by this restriction endonuclease and is destroyed.

    Academic text (1993)

  • So these are sounds that the brain was evolved to recognize very, very efficiently.

  • Since then, the mutation load principle has been extended and recognized as important for many different purposes.

    Academic text (1992)

  • There's only a limited number of ways the virus can adapt to recognize human receptors.

    Virus X (2010)

  • Behavioral observation is widely recognized as a suitable methodology for the assessment of behavioral disorders.

    Academic text (1991)

  • His mum, Sheila, recognizes her only surviving chick and feeds him dinner.

    The Elephant in the Room (2025)

  • Sophisticated new algorithms improve particle tracking by recognizing true tracks in the presence of noise.

    Academic text (2012)

  • One beetle recognizes another.

    The Secret of Kells (2009)

  • The immune system can recognize harmful bacteria and mount a response against them.

Synonyms

to identify
vsto recognize
∞ 1.8

Say who someone is or what something is

responds specifically to a particular antigen or substrate rather than naming
to discern
vsto recognize
70 5.8

To notice something that is hard to see or hear

responds specifically to a particular antigen or substrate rather than sensing
to discriminate
vsto recognize
31 4.2

To notice small differences between things

responds specifically to a particular antigen or substrate not only telling things apart

Antonyms

to ignore
∞ 1.0

Choose not to pay attention to someone or something

Phrasal Verbs

to recognize for
  • US
17 2.4

To give praise or a reward to someone for something good they did

Surface Forms

recognize infinitive
recognise infinitive
recognized past
recognised past
recognized past participle
recognised past participle
recognizing present participle
recognising present participle
recognizes third person singular
recognises third person singular

Morphology

recognize = cognize (semi-transparent) = re + cognize

The immunological sense ('identify/respond to an antigen') is a technical extension of 'identify/know', so the morphological building blocks apply but the usage is domain-specific.

Etymology

Recognize comes from re- 'again' and cogn- 'know', and in biology it keeps that idea of 'knowing'. So a cell or molecule that recognizes an antigen is able to identify that specific foreign item and respond to it.