Recommend

How to spell recommend

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce recommend

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does recommend mean?

1. verbTo put forward something or someone as worthy of approval, or to advise a particular action.

Recommend in a sentence

• The doctor will recommend a course of treatment after the test results arrive.

• She was happy to recommend a reliable plumber for the broken boiler.

Where does recommend come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin commendare, meaning 'to commit, entrust, or praise', which itself was built from the prefix com- (here acting as an intensifier) and mandare, 'to commit or entrust', literally 'to put into someone's hand'. In Medieval Latin a re- was added to form recommendare, strengthening the sense of presenting something favourably to another person. English took the word in during the late 1300s, originally meaning to commit someone to another's care or favour, before settling into the modern sense of praising something as worthy or advising a course of action. The same mandare root sits inside the everyday words 'mandate' and 'command', which is a useful reminder that 'mend' here has nothing to do with repairing. The spelling trap is purely a doubling question: there is a single c but a double m, the reverse of what many writers instinctively reach for.

How the word is built

• re- (intensive, again)
• com- (with, together)
• mend (from mandare: to commit, entrust)