reckon
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɹɛkən/
rhymes: -ɛkən
Forms: form: reckons
form: reckoning
form: reckoned
form: reckoned
form: reckin
form: recken
Etymology: From Middle English rekenen, from Old English recenian (“to pay; arrange, dispose, reckon”) and ġerecenian (“to explain, recount, relate”); both from Proto-West Germanic *rekanōn (“to count, explain”), from Proto-West Germanic *rekan (“swift, ready, prompt”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to make straight or right”).
Cognate with Scots rekkin (“to enumerate, mention, narrate, rehearse, count, calculate, compute”), Saterland Frisian reekenje (“to calculate, figure, reckon”), West Frisian rekkenje (“to account, tally, calculate, figure”), Dutch rekenen (“to count, calculate, reckon”), German Low German reken (“to reckon”), German rechnen (“to count, reckon, calculate”), Danish regne (“to calculate”), Swedish räkna (“to count, calculate, reckon”), Icelandic reikna (“to calculate”), Latin rectus (“straight, right”). See also reck, reach.
Senses: examples: text: then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Leviticus 27:18:
text: I reckoned above two hundred and fifty on the outside of the church.
ref: 1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
text: For all the king counted and pointed and reckoned, he could not find as much as a hair of them missing.
ref: 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 175:
glosses: To count; to enumerate; to number; also, to compute; to calculate.
examples: text: He was reckoned among the transgressors
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 53:12:
text: For him I reckon not in high estate Whom long descent of birth, Or the sphere of fortune, raises
ref: 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:
glosses: To count as in a number, rank, or series; to estimate by rank or quality; to place by estimation; to account; to esteem; to repute.
examples: text: […] faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 4:9:
text: Without her eccentricities being reckoned to her for a crime.
ref: 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 10, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
glosses: To charge, attribute, or adjudge to one, as having a certain quality or value.
examples: text: I reckon he won't try that again.
text: I’ve just heard from the repairman: it's going to cost £1000. I'd reckoned it’d be £500 at most.
text: For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 8:18:
text: Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 6:11:
text: The working life span of a passenger carriage, on average, is between 30 and 35 years, so a steady replacement takes place quite naturally. The life span of a station, however, cannot be so easily reckoned, for it depends largely on the rehabilitation and upkeep of the existing structures.
ref: 1962 October, Brian Haresnape, “Focus on B.R. passenger stations”, in Modern Railways, page 250:
text: "Game over," Waddicor warns. "Look at the fuel gauge. Someone's forgotten to fill up." The heavily laden train has come from Freightliner's Maritime Terminal in Southampton's western docks. Waddicor reckons there might not be enough diesel in the tank to complete the journey.
ref: 2025 August 20, Paul Clifton, “A driver's eye view of East West Rail”, in RAIL, number 1042, page 30:
glosses: To conclude, as by an enumeration and balancing of chances; hence, to think; to suppose; -- followed by an objective clause
examples: text: There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There’s a land—oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back—and I will.
ref: 1907, Robert W. Service, The Spell of the Yukon:
glosses: To reckon with something or somebody or not, i.e. to reckon without something or somebody: to take into account, deal with, consider or not, i.e. to misjudge, ignore, not take into account, not deal with, not consider or fail to consider; e.g. reckon without one's host
glosses: To make an enumeration or computation; to engage in numbering or computing.
glosses: To come to an accounting; to draw up or settle accounts; to examine and strike the balance of debt and credit; to adjust relations of desert or penalty.
Synonyms: sense: count
word: number
sense: count
word: enumerate
sense: calculate
word: calculate
sense: calculate
word: compute
sense: attribute a value
word: value
sense: attribute a value
word: rate
sense: attribute a value
word: esteem
sense: conclude, suppose
word: think
sense: conclude, suppose
word: believe
sense: conclude, suppose
word: guess
sense: conclude, suppose
word: suppose
sense: conclude, suppose
word: esteem
sense: make an enumeration
word: enumerate
sense: make an enumeration
word: compute
Derived terms: chinny reckon
dead reckon
outreckon
reckoner
reckon for
reckoning
reckon on
reckon out
reckon up
reckon upon
reckon with
reckon without
reckon without one's host
to reckon with