remember

From Middle English remembren, from Old French remembrer (“to remember”), from Late Latin rememorari (“to remember again”), from re- + memor (“mindful”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer-, *(s)mer- (“to think about, be mindful, remember”). Cognate with Old English mimorian, mymerian (“to remember, commemorate”), Old English māmorian (“to deliberate, plan out, design”). More at mammer.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈmɛmbɚ/, /ɹəˈmɛmbɚ/
• (General American, uncommon or dialectal, in rapid speech) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛmbɚ/, /ˈɹɪmbɚ/, /ˈɹɛmbɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈmɛmbə/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (UK):

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• Rhymes: -ɛmbə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: re‧mem‧ber

remember (third-person singular simple present remembers, present participle remembering, simple past and past participle remembered)

1. To recall from one's memory; to have an image in one's memory.
   • 1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion‎^[1], page 266:

     In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     […] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”.

   • 1971, Lyndon Johnson, The Vantage Point‎^[2], Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 104:

     A man's vision reflects his memories. As I looked out on the nation from the President's Oval Office, my reflections included images burned deep in my mind for over a half a century. I remembered my father's concern for the tenant farmer and for the workers' need for collective bargaining. I remembered my mother's deep faith in the value of education. I remembered the pinched and hopeless look of poverty I saw on the faces of the Mexican-American children I had taught. I remembered the army of jobless and ragged men who rode grimy boxcars across our country during the Depression. These and a hundred other separate recollections of struggle and hope were all part of my heritage. They formed a portion of the background against which I developed the programs I felt America wanted and needed.

   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     Remember me? I live in your building.

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   • 2021, President Joe Biden, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     To heal, we must remember. It's hard sometimes to remember, but that's how we heal. It's important to do that as a nation.

2. To memorize; to put something into memory.

   Please remember this formula!

3. To keep in mind; to be mindful of.

   Remember what I've said.

4. To not forget (to do something required)

   Remember to lock the door when you go out.

5. To convey greetings from.

   Please remember me to your brother.

   She asks to be remembered to you all.

   • 1613–1614 (date written), John Fletcher, William Shak[e]speare, The Two Noble Kinsmen: […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Waterson;  […], published 1634, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 3:

     Emil. Thanckes Sir; Remember me
     To our all royall Brother, for whose speede
     The great Bellona ile sollicite; and […]

6. (obsolete) To put in mind; to remind (also used reflexively).
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     Since thou dost give me pains, / Let me remember thee what thou hast promis'd, / Which is not yet perform'd me.

   • 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC:

     My friends remember'd me of home.

     The spelling has been modernized.

   • 1870, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Secret Parting, lines 5–7:

     But soon, remembering her how brief the whole
     Of joy, which its own hours annihilate,
     Her set gaze gathered

7. (intransitive) To engage in the process of recalling memories.

   You don't have to remind him; he remembers very well.

8. (transitive) To give (a person) money as a token of appreciation of past service or friendship.

   My aunt remembered me in her will, leaving me several thousand pounds.

   • 2003, Little Visits 365 Family Devotions: Building Faith for a Lifetime, Concordia Publishing House:

     Waitresses, mail carriers, and teachers were often remembered on Boxing Day.

9. (transitive) To commemorate, to have a remembrance ceremony.

   Today we remember and honour those who have served.

• In sense 1 this is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing).
• In sense 3 this is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive.
• See Appendix:English catenative verbs

• remembre (obsolete)

• recall
• reminisce
• retrieve

• Sranan Tongo: memre

• recollect
• recollection
• remind

re- +‎ member

remember (third-person singular simple present remembers, present participle remembering, simple past and past participle remembered)

1. (rare) Alternative form of re-member
   • 1982, Book Review Digest, volume 78, page 824:

     knit 'this scattered corn into one mutual sheaf, / these broken limbs again into one body' - in other words, how to resurrect the dismembered god, to remember Osiris. Yet the only body made whole in these expert, lowering poems is the body of this death.

   • 2008, Jan Assmann, Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism, page 42:

     According to these mysteries, the rites of fashioning or remembering Osiris came to be interpreted as remembering Egypt. Egypt was the body of Osiris, dismembered and scattered across the land.

   • 2010, Sandra Ingerman, Medicine for the Earth, page 100:

     She remembered Osiris by putting his pieces back together and mating with him one last time, conceiving Horus, who eventually avenged his father's death.

   • 2012, Roy Melvyn, The Lost Writings of Wu Hsin: Pointers to Non Duality in Five Volumes, Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN:

     To dismember is to tear apart; / To re-member is to put back together. / The old must be dismembered / So that which was prior to it / May be remembered. / Therefore, to re-mind is / To dismember and then re-member.

• re-member

• remembre