recalls

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of recall.

   The witness recalls seeing a red car near the scene.

   She recalls every detail of that summer with surprising clarity.

   Note

   The present-tense form for he, she or it carries every meaning of the verb. A witness recalls seeing a car, a government recalls its envoy, and a tune recalls an earlier era. In the memory sense it usually takes an -ing form or a noun: she recalls meeting him, he recalls the day. The same spelling serves the plural noun, so in a headline it may name an action or a list.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of recall.

   Auto manufacturers face costly recalls when serious defects surface.

   The agency tracks all food recalls across the country.

   Note

   Where the noun counts things, the plural follows: a string of product recalls or, in US politics, recalls of officeholders by petition and popular vote. The 1912 Progressive Party platform wanted to extend that device to some court decisions. The word is easily confused with the present-tense verb. The noun names events (the recalls of cars), while the verb names an action (a carmaker recalls cars).

Showing meanings only. Show all 2