recital

/rɪˈsaɪɾəl/

/rəˈsaɪtəl/

Other forms: recitals

The hardest part about piano lessons is having to give a recital, or to demonstrate what you've learned in front of an audience.

You can also use the noun recital to describe the telling of a story. Your uncle might be famous for boring people at parties with his recital of youthful Boy Scout adventures, for example. In the 1500s, recital was strictly a legal term, the "statement of relevant facts," but the musical meaning had come into use by the 1800s. The root is the Latin word recitare, "repeat from memory."

Definitions of recital

1. noun

   a public instance of reciting or repeating (from memory) something prepared in advance
   synonyms: reading, recitation

   types:

   declamation

   recitation of a speech from memory with studied gestures and intonation as an exercise in elocution or rhetoric

   type of:

   oral presentation, public speaking, speaking, speechmaking

   delivering an address to a public audience
2. noun

   performance of music or dance especially by soloists
   type of:

   performance, public presentation

   a dramatic or musical entertainment
3. noun

   a detailed statement giving facts and figures
   “his wife gave a recital of his infidelities”

   type of:

   statement

   a message that is stated or declared; a communication (oral or written) setting forth particulars or facts etc
4. noun

   a detailed account or description of something
   “he was forced to listen to a recital of his many shortcomings”

   type of:

   account, chronicle, history, story

   a record or narrative description of past events
5. noun

   the act of giving an account describing incidents or a course of events
   synonyms: narration, yarn

   types:

   recounting, relation, telling

   an act of narration

   type of:

   account, report

   the act of informing by verbal report