recognizance; reconnaissance; *reconnoissance. Recognizance = a bond or obligation, made in court, by which a person (called the recognizor) promises to perform some act or observe some condition (as to appear when called on, to pay a debt, or to keep the peace). E.g.: “The suspect was released on his own
recognizance.”
In British English, the -g- in recognisance (as it is spelled in BrE) is silent. But in American English, the -g- is regularly sounded.
Reconnaissance = a preliminary survey; a military or intelligence-gathering examination of a region. *Reconnoissance is an archaic French spelling of reconnaissance; it is also a needless variant of recognizance and of recognition. The verb corresponding to reconnaissance is reconnoiter.
