reminisce

reminisce
 
verb | rem-uh-NISS
 
What It Means
 
To reminisce is to talk, think, or write about things that happened in the past.
 
// After the official reunion dinner, the old friends gathered at a pub to reminisce about their high school days, now long past.

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reminisce
verb
rem·;i·;nisce ;re-m;-;nis
reminisced; reminiscing
Synonyms of reminisce
intransitive verb

: to indulge in reminiscence
reminiscer
;re-m;-;ni-s;r
 noun


Did you know?
What Comes to Mind When Thinking of reminisce?

Do you remember, say, the 21st night of September? Fantastic. Earth, Wind, and Fire does, too, on their classic hit from 1978, “September.” More than remember, the band reminisces—that is, they share details and express feelings about what they remember: dancing, a bell ringing, souls singing, et al. Reminisce distinguishes itself from words like remember and recollect by implying a casual recalling of experiences long past, often with a sense of nostalgia. Reminisce and its relatives reminiscence and reminiscent all trace back to the Latin verb reminisci, meaning “remember.” Reminisci in turn shares roots with mens, the Latin word for “mind.”

Synonyms
flash back (to)
hark back (to)
harken back (to)
hearken back (to)
mind [chiefly dialect]
recall
recollect
remember
reproduce
think (of)
Choose the Right Synonym for reminisce

remember, recollect, recall, remind, reminisce mean to bring an image or idea from the past into the mind.

remember implies a keeping in memory that may be effortless or unwilled.

remembers that day as though it were yesterday
recollect implies a bringing back to mind what is lost or scattered.

as near as I can recollect
recall suggests an effort to bring back to mind and often to re-create in speech.

can't recall the words of the song
remind suggests a jogging of one's memory by an association or similarity.

that reminds me of a story
reminisce implies a casual often nostalgic recalling of experiences long past and gone.

old college friends like to reminisce
Examples of reminisce in a Sentence
Ray pauses to point out the Whisky a Go Go, on Sunset Boulevard, and reminisces about the night Elvis Presley went there to see the Kinks play.
—David Wild, Rolling Stone, 13 May 1993
When relatives reminisce about my great-grandfather, they almost always precede it with some reference to his affection for me.
—Donna Tartt, Harper's, July 1992
We had apple fritters, roast chicken, an enormous lunch, with Mrs. Truman talkative, easy, and the President reminiscing and telling jokes.
—Lady Bird Johnson 2 Sept. 1965,, A White House Diary,  1970
He reminisced with old buddies at his high school reunion.
She reminisced about her time in Europe.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Baker-Mazara met up with his former Aztecs teammates for pizza the night before their first-round games, reminiscing about the good times on the Mesa, envisioning a reunion in the second round.
—Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 Apr. 2025
There were fifteen minutes of golf talk, with the President reminiscing about playing with Tiger Woods and Gary Player, and musing about how his Turnberry course, in Scotland, should host the British Open.
—Ruth Marcus, New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2025
Silverman reminiscing about an appearance on O’Brien’s show.
—Cathy Applefeld Olson, Forbes, 24 Mar. 2025
Almost exactly two years ago, on March 16, 2023, Matheson was preparing to face the Florida Panthers in Sunrise, Fla., and was reminiscing about his time there and how his last game with the organization was spent in a suit and tie as a healthy scratch.
—Arpon Basu, The Athletic, 23 Mar. 2025

Word History
Etymology
back-formation from reminiscence

First Known Use
1829, in the meaning defined above