Recoveries

How to spell recoveries

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce recoveries

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does recoveries mean?

1. nounInstances of returning to a normal state of health, strength, or value after a setback, or the acts of getting back something lost.

Recoveries in a sentence

• The clinic reported a sharp rise in full recoveries among its patients this year.

• Analysts charted several economic recoveries following past recessions.

Where does recoveries come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb recuperare, meaning 'to regain' or 'to get back', which is also the ancestor of the more formal English word 'recuperate'. It travelled into English through Old French, where the verb recovrer and the noun recoverie described the act of getting something back, whether goods, health, or a legal claim. The noun 'recovery' settled into English in the late medieval period, and its plural 'recoveries' simply follows the regular English rule of changing a final 'y' after a consonant to '-ies'. Over the centuries the sense broadened from regaining lost property to regaining health after illness and, later still, to the rebound of an economy or a market. The spelling keeps the single 'c' and single 'v' of the French form, which is the main thing to watch, since there is a temptation to double a consonant that was never doubled.

How the word is built

• re- (back, again)
• cover (regain, from Latin recuperare)
• -y (noun)
• -ies (plural ending replacing -y)