Meaning & use
reconnect
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To join a device, wire, line or network to a system again after the link has been lost or cut.
Grammar: With an object: reconnect the cable. Without one: the laptop reconnected.
Patterns
- reconnect something to something
- reconnect with something
I reconnected the printer to the Wi-Fi.
The phone reconnected automatically after the outage.
The engineer will reconnect the water supply tomorrow.
verbintransitive
To become close to someone again, or to feel in touch again with a place, activity or part of yourself.
Grammar: Usually followed by with: reconnect with an old friend.
Patterns
- reconnect with someone
- reconnect with something
She reconnected with her cousin after ten years.
A weekend walking in the hills helped him reconnect with nature.
The reunion gave the old teammates a chance to reconnect.
Word forms
| third person singular | reconnects |
|---|---|
| past tense | reconnected |
| past participle | reconnected |
| -ing form | reconnecting |
Common combinations
- reconnect with friends
- Social media helped him reconnect with school friends.
- reconnect with nature
- They went camping to reconnect with nature.
- reconnect to the internet
- Wait a minute for the router to reconnect to the internet.
- reconnect the power
- Crews worked all night to reconnect the power.
- reconnect with family
- The holiday was a chance to reconnect with family.
Synonyms and how they differ
- reestablish
- Reestablish is more formal and suits relations, contact or order rather than cables or devices.
- reunite
- Reunite means to bring people or parts back together, usually with strong emotion, and it works more for people than for machines.
- relink
- Relink is a narrow technical word for restoring a link, especially online.
- rekindle
- Rekindle is used only for feelings or relationships such as a romance, and implies renewing something that faded.
Opposites
Word family
- connect verb
- to join or link
- reconnection noun
- the act of being linked again
- connection noun
- a link between things or people
- disconnect verb
- to break a link
Commonly confused: reconnect or reunite?
reconnect vs reunite
Reunite is for bringing separated people or parts back together, while reconnect also covers devices and feelings.
Practice
After moving abroad, Leila used video calls to ___ her old friends.
Choose one answer.
With is the preposition used for renewing contact with people. The other prepositions do not fit this meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “reconnect”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.