acknowledge

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb

To admit the knowledge of; to recognize as a fact or truth; to declare one's belief in.
To own or recognize in a particular quality, character or relationship; to admit the claims or authority of; to give recognition to.
To be grateful of (e.g. a benefit or a favour)
To report (the receipt of a message to its sender).
To own as genuine or valid; to assent to (a legal instrument) to give it validity; to avow or admit in legal form.

Pronunciation

/əkˈnɒl.ɪd͡ʒ/ [əkˈnɒɫ.ɪd͡ʒ] [əɡˈnɒɫ.ɪd͡ʒ] /əkˈnɑ.lɪd͡ʒ/ [əkˈnɑ.ləd͡ʒ] [ɪkˈnɑ.lɪd͡ʒ] [əɡˈnɑ.ləd͡ʒ] [ɪɡˈnɑ.lɪd͡ʒ] [ɪɡˈnɑ.ləd͡ʒ] en-us-acknowledge.ogg

Word forms

acknowledge acknowledges acknowledging acknowledged acknowledg acknowelege aknowledge acknowlege

Etymology

Recorded since 1553, a blend of Middle English aknowen (“to recognize, acknowledge”) and knowlechen (“to discover, reveal, acknowledge”). The former verb is from Old English oncnāwan, ācnāwan (“to know, recognize, acknowledge”), from on + cnāwan (“to know”). The latter is derived from the noun at hand in knowledge. For the formation compare Latin agnōscō and Russian призна́ть (priznátʹ), with cognate roots. The /k/-sound was preserved by being redistributed to the preceding syllable: /əˈkn-/ > /əkˈn-/. The -c- was inserted accordingly to reflect this pronunciation more clearly.

Synonyms

avow recognize admit allow concede confess own grant

Related words

acknowledgment

Derived words

acknowledgeable acknowledged acknowledger acknowledge the corn disacknowledge misacknowledge preacknowledge reacknowledge unacknowledge

Translations

Arabic: شَكَرَ Bulgarian: признателен съм Dutch: erkentelijk zijn Dutch: erkennen Finnish: kiittää Galician: recoñecer Ancient Greek: νομίζω Old English: oncnāwan Portuguese: reconhecer Serbo-Croatian: priznati

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

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