recover
verb
Simple meaning
Regain or make up for.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rihkuhverSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹɪˈkʌvɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Regain or make up for
transitive
To replenish to, resume (a good state of mind or body).
transitive
To get back, to regain (a physical thing; in astronomy and navigation, sight of a thing or a signal).
intransitive
To regain one's composure, balance etc.
(intransitive, followed by "from" to show what caused the bad feeling) To get better, to regain health or prosperity.
Cover anew
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Regain or make up for
Used this way, recover is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- convalesce , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use recover
- “We expect the stocks to recover to $2.90.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Regain or make up for.
To regain or get back something.
To make back (an investment or similar).
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Capable of being recovered or regained.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: regain or make up for
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.