rencounter means to meet, encounter, come into contact with. It carries an Arena rating of 1655, earned across 23 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, rencounter ranks #2,321 of 17,135 for Most Malleable Words, #3,732 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #4,063 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #4,784 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words.
rencounter is pronounced /ɹɛnˈkaʊntə/.
Why “rencounter” is a great word
RENCOUNTER — [Verb, Noun] A sudden meeting, carrying the historical weight of a clash and the profound arbitrariness of fate. From Middle English rencounteren, from Middle French rencontrer ("to meet, encounter"), itself from re- (expressing intensive force) + encontrer ("to encounter"). Unlike "encounter"—a placid, general-purpose term—or "skirmish"—a strictly martial trifle—a rencounter lives in the charged space of the unexpected. It is the flash of steel in a forest clearing, the jarring eye-contact with a former lover across a rain-slicked square, or the quiet, shared glance of strangers halted by the same downpour—a momentary fracture in the expected order of things, where accident and intention are indistinguishable, a small, forgotten hinge in the narrative of a life.
Etymology
From Middle English rencounteren, rencountren, from Middle French rencontrer, corresponding to re- + encounter.
verb
- To meet, encounter, come into contact with.
- To attack hand to hand.e.g.“Tho, whenas still he saw him towards pace,
He gan rencounter him in equall race” — 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
noun
- An encounter between opposing forces; a conflict.e.g.“Mr Nightingale promised to enquire into the state of Mr Fitzpatrick's wound, and likewise to find out some of the persons who were present at the rencounter.” — 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
- An encounter or chance meeting.e.g.“The Prior at length […] rode off with considerably less pomp, and in a much more apostolical condition, so far as worldly matters were concerned, than he had exhibited before this rencounter.” — 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […],
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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