different between reckon vs reflect

English

Alternative forms

• reckin (dialectal)
• recken (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English rekenen, from Old English recenian (“to pay; arrange, dispose, reckon”) and ?erecenian (“to explain, recount, relate”); both from Proto-Germanic *rekan?n? (“to count, explain”), from Proto-Germanic *rekanaz (“swift, ready, prompt”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?re?- (“to make straight or right”).

Cognate with Scots rekkin (“to ennumerate, 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”), Swedish räkna (“to count, calculate, reckon”), Icelandic reikna (“to calculate”), Latin rectus (“straight, right”). See also reck, reach.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???k?n/
• Rhymes: -?k?n

Verb

reckon (third-person singular simple present reckons, present participle reckoning, simple past and past participle reckoned)

1. To count; to enumerate; to number; also, to compute; to calculate.
   • I reckoned above two hundred and fifty on the outside of the church.
2. 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.
   • 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes

     For him I reckon not in high estate Whom long descent of birth, Or the sphere of fortune, raises

3. To charge, attribute, or adjudge to one, as having a certain quality or value.
   • 1611, King James Version, Romans 4:9

     […] faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.

   • Without her eccentricities being reckoned to her for a crime.

4. (colloquial) To conclude, as by an enumeration and balancing of chances; hence, to think; to suppose; -- followed by an objective clause

   I reckon he won't try that again.

   • 1611, King James Version, Romans 8:18

     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.

   • 1611, King James Version, Romans 6:11

     Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin.
5. 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
6. (intransitive) To make an enumeration or computation; to engage in numbering or computing.
7. 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.

   • Parfay," sayst thou, sometime he reken shall."

Synonyms

• number
• enumerate
• compute
• calculate
• estimate
• value
• esteem
• account
• repute

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• calculate
• guess

References

• reckon in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• conker, rocken

English

Etymology

From Old French reflecter (“to bend back, turn back”), from Latin reflect? (“I reflect”), from re- (“again”) + flect? (“I bend, I curve”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???fl?kt/
• Rhymes: -?kt

Verb

reflect (third-person singular simple present reflects, present participle reflecting, simple past and past participle reflected)

1. (transitive) To bend back (light, etc.) from a surface.

   A mirror reflects the light that shines on it.

2. (intransitive) To be bent back (light, etc.) from a surface.

   The moonlight reflected from the surface of water.

3. (transitive) To mirror, or show the image of something.

   The shop window reflected his image as he walked past.

4. (intransitive) To be mirrored.

   His image reflected from the shop window as he walked past.

5. (transitive) To agree with; to closely follow.

   Entries in English dictionaries aim to reflect common usage.

6. (transitive) To give evidence of someone's or something's character etc.

   The team's victory reflects the Captain's abilities.

   The teacher's ability reflects well on the school.
8. (intransitive) To think seriously; to ponder or consider.
   • 1985, Justin Richards, Option Lock, page 229:

     Not for the first time, he reflected that it was not so much the speeches that strained the nerves as the palaver that went with them.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:ponder

Derived terms

Translations