Recital

How to spell recital

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce recital

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does recital mean?

1. nounA public performance of music or dance, usually by a soloist or a small group.
2. nounA detailed statement or telling over of facts or events.

Recital in a sentence

• The young pianist practised for weeks before her first recital.

• Her lengthy recital of the meeting left out no relevant detail.

• Tickets for the violin recital sold out within an hour.

• The report opened with a dry recital of the company's finances.

Where does recital come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb citare, meaning 'to summon, to call forth or set in motion', which was itself an intensive form of ciere, 'to put into movement'. Adding the prefix re-, in the sense of 'again' or 'back', gave recitare, literally 'to read out' or 'to call back', the idea being to summon words aloud once more for an audience. English took the verb 'recite' from Old French in the late 1400s, and the noun 'recital' was formed in English by the 1500s, at first meaning simply a detailed account or telling over of facts. By the 1800s it had acquired its now familiar musical sense, a public performance in which a soloist 'speaks out' a programme of pieces. The same cit root surfaces in 'cite', 'citation' and 'excite', which is a handy reminder that the spelling keeps that single 'c' followed by 'it', not a doubled letter.

How the word is built

• re- (again, back)
• cit (from Latin citare: to summon, call forth)
• -al (noun suffix)