Reciting

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To vocalize a passage from memory in front of an audience while conveying the text's meaning and structure To express written content aloud, often with emphasis, aiming to engage listeners through memorized delivery Engagingly narrating a learned text out loud to an audience, usually in a formal manner with focus on clarity and expression
2. Speaking aloud from memory a piece of text for an audience
3. Delivering aloud a memorized passage clearly to listeners

Etymology: "Recite" comes from Latin "recitare," meaning to read aloud, and its core idea is still visible in the modern sense. The Latin root "citare" means to summon or set in motion, and the prefix "re-" adds the sense of bringing something back out. A recitation was originally a formal public reading, passed from the Old French "reciter" into Middle English as "reciten." "Reciting" is the present participle of this verb, so it describes the ongoing act of delivering that text aloud. Because the English verb is built from "re-" plus "cite," it shares its ancestry with words like "cite" and "excite," which all trace back to the same Latin family of ideas about calling or stirring something forth.

Synonyms: repeating, recalling, rehearsing

Antonyms: forgetting, ignoring