Meaning & use
recess
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A short break in the day when students stop lessons, or a pause during formal proceedings such as a trial or meeting.
Grammar: In US schools a recess is the daily break; in courts, a recess is a pause: the court is in recess.
Patterns
- in recess
- go out for recess
- call a recess
The children ran onto the playground at recess.
The judge called a ten-minute recess.
Congress is in recess until next month.
nouncountable
A small space set back into a wall or the side of something, such as a shelf or alcove.
Grammar: Often followed by in or of: a recess in the wall.
Patterns
- a recess in something
- the recess of something
A statue stood in a recess in the wall.
He kept the key in a dark recess behind the bookcase.
The window sat in a deep recess.
nounusually pluralliterary
A remote or hidden inner part of a place, or of the mind.
Grammar: Usually recesses, followed by of: the recesses of memory.
Patterns
- the recesses of something
Bats nested in the deepest recesses of the cave.
The memory lay in the recesses of her mind.
He searched the dusty recesses of the attic.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To stop proceedings for a short time, or to set something back into a wall.
Grammar: Intransitive for pauses (the court recessed); transitive for building (recess the lights).
Patterns
- recess for something
- recess something into something
The court recessed for lunch.
The builder recessed the shelves into the wall.
The committee will recess until Monday.
Word forms
| plural | recesses |
|---|---|
| third person singular | recesses |
| past tense | recessed |
| past participle | recessed |
| -ing form | recessing |
Common combinations
- summer recess
- Parliament returns after the summer recess.
- in recess
- The Senate is in recess this week.
- morning recess
- We play kickball at morning recess.
- deep recess
- The cat curled up in a deep recess under the stairs.
- recessed lighting
- They installed recessed lighting in the kitchen ceiling.
- recesses of the mind
- Fears hide in the recesses of the mind.
Synonyms and how they differ
- break
- Break is general for any pause, while recess is used for a scheduled pause in school or formal proceedings.
- adjournment
- Adjournment is a formal ending of a meeting until another time, usually longer than a recess.
- alcove
- Alcove names a small section of a room set back from the main part, while recess can also be a hollow in any surface.
- niche
- Niche is a shallow hollow in a wall, often for a statue, and is narrower than recess.
Word family
Commonly confused: recess or recession? recess or reset?
recess vs recession
A recession is an economic downturn; recess is a pause or a hollow, though both come from a word meaning to go back.
recess vs reset
Reset means to set something again, and the similar spelling makes it easy to mistype recess.
Practice
In US English, what does a student usually mean by 'recess'?
Choose one answer.
At school, recess is the short break when students go out to play. A hollow in a wall is another meaning of recess, but it is not what a student would normally mean, and the summer break is called vacation.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “recess”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.