Recount

How to spell recount

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce recount

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does recount mean?

1. verbTo tell or describe in detail a series of events or experiences.
2. verbTo count something a second time, especially to check a total.
3. nounA second or repeated count, particularly of votes in an election.

Recount in a sentence

• verb

  During the interview she would recount how the company began in her garage.

• verb

  Officials agreed to recount the ballots after the result came in so close.

• noun

  The losing candidate demanded a recount once the margin fell below a hundred votes.

• verb

  The witness was asked to recount exactly what happened on the night of the robbery.

• verb

  The cashier had to recount the till when the figures did not balance.

• noun

  The narrow result triggered an automatic recount under local election rules.

Where does recount come from?

Language of origin: French

This word entered English through Old French, where 'reconter' meant 'to relate or tell over again', built from the prefix 're-' (meaning 'again' or 'back') and 'conter', 'to tell or relate'. That French verb traces back to the Latin 'computare', 'to calculate or reckon up', from 'com-' (together) and 'putare' (to reckon or consider). The same Latin source gave us both 'count' and 'compute', which is why 'recount' carries two threads of meaning that an adult still uses today: to narrate a sequence of events, and quite literally to count something a second time. The narrative sense arrived first in late Middle English in the 1400s, while the plain arithmetical 'count again' sense leans on the simpler modern verb 'count'. The spelling trap is purely the doubled idea behind one 're-': there is only one 'c', and the word never doubles to 'reccount'.

How the word is built

• re- (again / back)
• count (to relate, reckon, or tally, from Old French conter)