to recognize or admit the existence, truth, or reality of
2.
to indicate recognition or awareness of, as by a greeting, glance, etc
3.
to express appreciation or thanks for
to acknowledge a gift
4.
to make the receipt of known to the sender
to acknowledge an e-mail
5.
to recognize, esp in legal form, the authority, rights, or claims of
agnize in American English
(æɡˈnaiz, ˈæɡnaiz)
transitive verbWord forms: -nized, -nizing
archaic
to recognize; acknowledge; own
Also, esp. Brit.: agnise
Word origin
[1525–35; ‹ L agn(ōscere) to recognize (a(d)- ad- + (g)nōscere to come to know, equiv. to gnō- know + -scere-esce) + -ize, modeled on cognize, recognize]This word is first recorded in the period 1525–35. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: converter, folio, inflection, mask, signature-ize is a verb-forming suffix occurring originally in loanwords from Greek that have enteredEnglish through Latin or French (baptize; barbarize; catechize); within English, -ize is added to adjectives and nouns to form transitive verbs with the general senses“to render, make” (actualize; fossilize; sterilize; Americanize), “to convert into, give a specified character or form to” (computerize; dramatize; itemize; motorize), “to subject to (as a process, sometimes named after its originator)” (hospitalize; terrorize; galvanize; oxidize; simonize; winterize). Also formed with -ize are a more heterogeneous group of verbs, usually intransitive, denoting a changeof state (crystallize), kinds or instances of behavior (apologize; moralize; tyrannize), or activities (economize; philosophize; theorize)