What does "reminiscence" mean?

An act of remembering long-past experiences, especially positive or pleasant ones, often fondly.

What is a synonym for "reminiscence"?

Common synonyms include: recall, flashback, recall, recollection, recollection, anamnesis.

Pronounced //ˌɹɛm.əˈnɪs.əns//.

//ˌɹɛm.əˈnɪs.əns// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
An act of remembering long-past experiences, especially positive or pleasant ones, often fondly. countable, uncountable
"Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence."
2
the process of remembering (especially the process of recovering information by mental effort) wordnet
3
A mental image thus remembered. countable, uncountable
"Fogel, working with a script by the journalist Kerry Howley, follows Winner from the age of nine to the aftermath of her plea, and organizes the movie around voice-over reminiscences by Reality (the character is played by Emilia Jones)."
4
a mental impression retained and recalled from the past wordnet

"Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence."

From Late Latin reminīscentiae (“remembrances”), from Latin reminīscēns, present active participle of reminīscor (“remember”); see reminiscent.

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