memory

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Retention of thought

Nouns

1. memory, remembrance, retention, retentiveness, reminiscence, recognition, recurrence, recollection, retrospect, retrospection, afterthought; computer memory (see computers). See thought, past.

2. reminder, suggestion, prompting, hint, cue; token, memento, souvenir, keepsake, relic, memorandum, memo, memoir; memorial, commemoration, anniversary, Memorial Day, Veterans' Day, Decoration Day, etc.;monument; memorabilia; flashback. See record, celebration.

3. art of memory; artificial memory, mnemonics, mnemotechnics; Mnemosyne; retentive or photographic memory, total recall; déjà vu; rote, repetition; flash or cue card, nudge; prompter. Informal, a string around a finger.

Verbs

1. remember, retain the memory of; keep in view, bear in mind, hold in memory, remain in one's memory, mind, or head; recur to the mind, flash across the memory; haunt, run in the head; take a walk down memory lane.

2. (be reminded of) recognize, recollect, bethink oneself, recall, call up, identify, retrace, look or hark back, think back upon, review, call to mind, ring a bell, carry one's thoughts back, reminisce; rack one's brain.

3. (remind) suggest, prompt, put or keep in mind, remind, call or summon up; renew; tax, jog, refresh, or awaken the memory, ring a bell; dig up, exhume. Slang, rub it in (see repetition).

4. memorize; have, learn, know, or say by heart or rote; repeat, have at or on the tip of one's tongue; commit to memory; con, fix, make a note of. Informal, busk. See learning.

5. keep the memory alive, keep in memory, commemorate, memorialize, honor the memory of, enshrine.

Adjectives — remembering, remembered, mindful, reminiscent, retentive, retained in the memory, fresh, alive, green, unforgotten, within one's memory, indelible; uppermost in one's thoughts; memorable, memorial, commemorative.

Adverbs — by heart or rote, without prompting, word for word; in memory of, in memoriam, for old times' sake.

Phrases — our memory is always at fault, never our judgment; nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Quotations — Memories are hunting horns whose sound dies on the wind (Guillaume Apollinaire), Midnight shakes the memory as a madman shakes a dead geranium (T. S. Eliot), In plucking the fruit of memory one runs the risk of spoiling its bloom (Joseph Conrad), Memory is the mother of all wisdom (Aeschylus), Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again (Willa Cather), Good memories are lost jewels (Paul Valéry), In memory everything seems to happen to music (Tennessee Williams), Americans are impatient with memory (Jamaica Kincaid), I summon up remembrance of things past (Shakespeare).

Antonyms, see oblivion.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [The power to call up the past]

Syn. recollection, recall, retention, retrospection, reminiscence, thought, mindfulness, consciousness, subconsciousness, unconscious memory, retentive memory, déjà vu (French), ready memory, photographic memory, visual memory, auditory memory; see also mind 1 , remembrance 1 .

2. [That which can be recalled]

Syn. remembrance, recollection, mental image, picture, vision, sound image, representation, fantasy, concept; see also thought 2 .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

1. recall recollection, remembrance, retention, retrospection, reminiscence, photographic memory, eidetic memory, hypermnesia, calling to mind. ''The library of the gave us so that we might have roses in December.''—James Barrie. ''The warder of the brain.''—Shakespeare.

2. reminder image, recollection, picture, thought, vision.

ANT.: amnesia

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun 1. The power of retaining and recalling past experience: recall, recollection, remembrance, reminiscence. See REMEMBER. 2. An act or instance of remembering: recollection, remembrance, reminiscence. See REMEMBER.