1. act of recognizing: the act of identifying somebody or something on the basis of a past sighting or experience, the ability to do this, or the fact of being identified through having been seen or experienced before changed beyond recognition disguised to avoid recognition
2. appreciation: appreciation of the value of an achievement His pioneering work never got the recognition it deserved.
3. acknowledgment: acknowledgment of the existence or validity of something They'll need recognition from the committee in order to proceed.
4. permission to speak: permission given by somebody chairing a meeting to somebody who has asked to speak
5. politics acceptance of country's existence: the formal acceptance by one country of the independent and legal status of another
6. token of acknowledgment: something given or awarded as a token of acknowledgment or gratitude
7. sensing of data by computer: the sensing and conversion of data into machine-readable form by a computer
8. biology compatibility of molecules: the ability of molecules with complementary shapes to attach to one another
[15th century. Directly or via French< Latin recognition-< recognit-, past participle of recognoscere (see recognize)]
