Reconnaissance

//ɹiˈkɒnəsəns// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of scouting or exploring (especially military or medical) to gain information. countable, uncountable

    "The third member, Sergeant Pieter Rousseau, had been with the back-up teams at the Hub; he was an expert on space reconnaissance instrumentation, but on this trip he would have to depend on his own eyes and a small portable telescope."

  2. 2
    the act of reconnoitring (especially to gain information about an enemy or potential enemy) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
espionageair coverair raidair supportbombingcover

Example

More examples

"A reconnaissance satellite is a military satellite capable of monitoring many activities on earth, eavesdropping on lines, registering the operating frequency of the radar systems..."

Etymology

Borrowed from French reconnaissance (“recognition”). Doublet of recognizance.

Related phrases

reconnaissance in forcespace reconnaissance

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.