Retake

How to spell retake

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce retake

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does retake mean?

1. verbTo take or photograph, exam, or recording again because the first attempt was unsatisfactory.
2. nounA second attempt at something, such as a re-filmed scene or a re-sat examination.

Retake in a sentence

• verb

  She will need to retake the maths exam in the summer.

• noun

  The editor flagged the shaky footage and ordered a retake.

• verb

  The director asked the cast to retake the final scene.

• noun

  He failed the first paper but booked a retake for September.

Where does retake come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This is a transparent English compound, formed by attaching the prefix re-, meaning 'again' or 'back', to the verb 'take'. The base verb 'take' is itself a borrowing into Old English from Old Norse 'taka', meaning 'to grasp, seize, or lay hold of', brought to Britain by Scandinavian settlers and gradually displacing the native Old English 'niman'. The re- prefix arrived from Latin by way of French and became a freely productive English element used to mark repetition. 'Retake' assembled these pieces relatively late, with the sense of taking something a second time recorded from the 1700s, and it picked up its modern photographic and broadcasting meaning (a re-shot film scene) in the early twentieth century. Because the two parts join cleanly with no doubled letters or dropped sounds, the spelling is straightforward once you recognise it as simply re- plus take.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• take (from Old Norse taka: to grasp, seize)