Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To repeat or utter aloud (something memorized or rehearsed), often before an audience.
  • intransitive verb To relate in detail: synonym: describe.
  • intransitive verb To list or enumerate.
  • intransitive verb To deliver a recitation.
  • intransitive verb To repeat lessons prepared or memorized.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Recital.
  • To repeat or say over, as something previously prepared or committed to memory; rehearse the words of; deliver orally: as, to recite the Litany; to recite a poem.
  • In music, to deliver in recitative.
  • To relate the facts or particulars of; give an account or statement of; tell: as, to recite one's adventures or one's wrongs.
  • To repeat or tell over in writing; set down the words or particulars of; rehearse; cite; quote.
  • Synonyms Cite, Adduce, etc. (see quote); Rehearse, Reiterate, etc. (see recapitulate); enumerate, detail.
  • To make a recitation or rehearsal; rehearse or say over what has been learned: as, to recite in public or in a class.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To repeat, pronounce, or rehearse, as before an audience, something prepared or committed to memory; to rehearse a lesson learned.
  • noun obsolete A recital.
  • transitive verb To repeat, as something already prepared, written down, committed to memory, or the like; to deliver from a written or printed document, or from recollection; to rehearse.
  • transitive verb To tell over; to go over in particulars; to relate; to narrate
  • transitive verb To rehearse, as a lesson to an instructor.
  • transitive verb (Law) To state in or as a recital. See Recital, 5.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To repeat aloud some passage, poem or other text previously memorized, often before an audience
  • verb transitive To list or enumerate something
  • verb intransitive To deliver a recitation

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb recite in elocution
  • verb repeat aloud from memory
  • verb narrate or give a detailed account of
  • verb render verbally,
  • verb specify individually

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English reciten, from Old French reciter, from Latin recitāre, to read out : re-, re- + citāre, to quote; see cite.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin recitare.

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Examples

  • Bush could decapitate Christianne Amanpour on CNN (though he'd probably prefer to do it on Fox News), and claim he's learned she's part of a sleeper cell and was about to recite a code word - and that would be legal according to Gonzalez, because he was acting as Commander in Chief on the War in Terror.

    Chris Durang: Congress, Don't Let the Decider Bomb Iran 2008

  • As the children variously sing, tap-dance or recite from the works of T. H.

    Archive 2008-01-01 2008

  • The constitutional catechism that Supreme Court nominees must recite is a way of taking the temperature, so to speak, of particular constitutional controversies and the degree to which they have reached settlement.

    Balkinization 2006

  • Helen went to the Royal Academy, but when asked to deliver her report upon the pictures she began to recite from a pale blue volume, O! for the touch of a vanished hand and the sound of a voice that is still.

    Monday or Tuesday 1921

  • This is especially true for professors who (1) largely recite from the book; and (2) call on people who don’t know what they’re talking about but keep asking them questions.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Laptops in Class Redux 2010

  • Iqra, "recite," the angel had told him, and thus the stirring opening lines of the Quran -- "the recitation" -- came into being.

    'After the Prophet' 2009

  • Since these altered texts differ from those still retained in the Missal, choirs which "recite" the texts will do so from the Vatican "Gradual", and not from the Missal.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 10: Mass Music-Newman 1840-1916 1913

  • I told him I would favour the company with a display of my elocutionary abilities, but purposely withheld the title of the selection which I meant to recite, meaning at the proper time to surprise my hearers.

    Fibble, D.D. Tony Sarg 1910

  • Gabriel (or Jibreel) to "recite" the message of Allah (Arabic for God).

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] 2010

  • Gabriel (or Jibreel) to "recite" the message of Allah (Arabic for God).

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] JeezusFreak32 2010

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