Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - recognition

 noun  Etymology: Middle English recognicion, from Anglo-French ~, from Latin ~-, recognitio, from recognoscere  Date: 15th century  1. the action of recognizing ; the state of being recognized: as  a. acknowledgment; especially formal acknowledgment of the political existence of a government or nation  b. knowledge or feeling that someone or something present has been encountered before  2. special notice or attention  3. the sensing and encoding of printed or written data by a machine optical character ~ magnetic ink character ~