What does recommission mean?
Recommission means to bring something back into active service after it has been withdrawn, temporarily inactive, or otherwise taken out of use. The term is especially common in discussion of ships, aircraft, military equipment, machinery, and industrial systems, where equipment may be preserved during peacetime or storage and later prepared for operation again. It differs from commission, which means to authorize or begin something, by carrying the implication of a previous operating period. In everyday speech, restore or bring back into service is often clearer. Recommission can also be used more broadly for systems or facilities that have been inactive. The related word decommission denotes the opposite process: taking equipment out of active service.
To return a ship, vehicle, machine, or other equipment to active service after it has been withdrawn from operation.
"The navy recommissioned the destroyer after completing its repairs."
Formal and especially common in military, naval, aviation, and industrial contexts.
To put something back into use or operation after a period of inactivity.
"The council voted to recommission the building as a community centre."
A broader, less frequent use than the technical sense involving equipment or vessels.
A ship can be retired without being scrapped: recommissioning brings it back into active duty.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does recommission come from?
Recommission was formed by combining the prefix re-, meaning again, with commission. Commission itself comes through Old French from the Latin commissio, an agreement or undertaking, from committere, meaning to commit or entrust. The core sense of formally authorizing or entrusting someone or something developed into the idea of putting equipment or a vessel into active service. Recommission consequently expresses a return to that operational status.
How recommission is actually used
The word is formal and relatively uncommon. It is especially associated with ships, aircraft, military equipment, and industrial machinery; in ordinary contexts, restore or bring back into service is often more natural.
Easily confused with recommission
Commission means to authorize or begin something, while recommission means to return something that was previously withdrawn to active service.
Decommission takes something out of service, whereas recommission restores it to service.