Meaning & use
reconcile
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To bring people back into friendly relations after an argument or quarrel.
Grammar: Takes an object, usually people: reconcile the two brothers. Often passive: they were reconciled.
Patterns
- reconcile someone with someone
- reconcile two people
The mediator tried to reconcile the two neighbors.
After years of silence, she was reconciled with her sister.
A shared meal helped reconcile the quarreling families.
verbtransitive
To find a way for two ideas, facts or demands that seem to conflict to exist or be true together.
Grammar: Takes an object and often with: reconcile one thing with another.
Patterns
- reconcile something with something
- reconcile something and something
It is hard to reconcile her kind words with her cruel actions.
He tried to reconcile his career with family life.
Scientists worked to reconcile the two sets of data.
verbtransitivebusiness
To check two sets of financial records against each other and adjust them until they agree.
Grammar: Takes records as object: reconcile the accounts.
Patterns
- reconcile something with something
- reconcile the accounts
The accountant reconciled the bank statement with the ledger.
We reconcile all invoices at the end of each month.
Once the figures were reconciled, the error was obvious.
verbtransitive
To accept an unpleasant situation, usually with yourself as the object, after resisting it for a time.
Grammar: Reflexive pattern: reconcile yourself to something.
Patterns
- reconcile yourself to something
- be reconciled to something
He slowly reconciled himself to living far from home.
She was reconciled to the idea of retiring early.
They could not reconcile themselves to the loss.
Word forms
| third person singular | reconciles |
|---|---|
| past tense | reconciled |
| past participle | reconciled |
| -ing form | reconciling |
Common combinations
- reconcile differences
- The two parties struggled to reconcile their differences.
- reconcile the accounts
- She reconciled the accounts before the audit.
- hard to reconcile
- These claims are hard to reconcile with the evidence.
- reconciled with
- He finally reconciled with his father.
- reconcile yourself to
- You must reconcile yourself to some delay.
Synonyms and how they differ
- make up
- Make up is an informal phrasal verb for ending a quarrel, while reconcile is more formal and also covers ideas and figures.
- harmonize
- Harmonize stresses bringing things into pleasing agreement, whereas reconcile stresses resolving a conflict.
- settle
- Settle focuses on ending a dispute by agreement, not necessarily restoring friendship as reconcile does.
- square
- Square, as in square one's claims with the facts, is more informal and suggests simple matching.
Opposites
Word family
- reconciliation noun
- the act of restoring friendship or agreement
- reconcilable adjective
- able to be brought into agreement
- irreconcilable adjective
- impossible to bring into agreement
- reconciliatory adjective
- intended to make peace
Commonly confused: reconcile or resolve?
reconcile vs resolve
Resolve means to settle a problem or decide firmly, while reconcile means to bring conflicting people or ideas into harmony.
Practice
It is difficult to ______ his public image as a generous man with the way he treats his staff.
Choose one answer.
Reconcile one thing with another means to make two conflicting things fit together. The other verbs do not take this 'with' pattern.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “reconcile”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.