These words refer to the act of summoning up the past, to its spontaneous cropping up in the mind, or to the fixing of present data in the memory for future reference. Remember can refer generally to any mental glance at the past, voluntary or involuntary: he caught himself remembering how his first wife would have cooked the same meal; struggling to remember where he had been at the time the incident took place. Often the word specifically suggests the staying power of a vivid past event for circumstance: I can still remember every detail in my old dormitory room at school. Recall is more formal than remember and more often indicates a voluntary summoning up of the past, whether silently for oneself or verbally for others.

• He recalled his last evening with his fiancée whenever he felt depressed; In his closing speech to the jury, the crown prosecutor recalled the mass of incriminating evidence he had developed during the trial.

But, unlike remember , the word can refer to something in the present that resembles something in the past, and thereafter calls it up: a view that recalled to him the fishing village in which he had stayed during the war. Remind concentrates more exclusively on this last possibility for recall: a man who reminded her of her first lover. But remind can also suggest a conscious effort to ensure that something will be remembered in the future: a note on his calendar to remind himself of their luncheon date; a monument to remind future generations of the sacrifices made on their behalf.

Recollect is very similar in sense to remember and recall: I don’t rightly recollect when I saw her last. But the word can apply also to the act of casting one’s mind back over past events in a leisurely and ruminative manner, whether silently to oneself or verbally to others. It can suggest the active process of piecing together dimly remembered and half-forgotten details: He settled back with great relish and began to recollect those battles in the war that he had witnessed at first hand. Reminisce is exclusively restricted to this last use of recollect , adding a positive note of pleasant nostalgia; the word may also suggest a tendency to dwell on or brood over the past: daydreams during which she reminisced a great deal about the life she had lived before her marriage; cronies who sit around reminiscing about their vanished yesterdays.

Retain can point to the staying power of a memory that often comes to mind involuntarily or without effort: He had always retained a picture of his father decked out in riding gear. In more neutral uses, the word can involve the question of mentally holding on to facts or details that one is trying to learn: a test to measure how much of the reading exercise each person had retained after a given passage of time. Memorize is much more specifically directed to this situation, indicating a conscious and laborious effort to commit something to memory in exact detail: actors who are good at quickly memorizing their parts; a last look in which he tried to memorize every line and angle of her face.

Review suggests an orderly summoning up of the past in summary form, applying particularly to past lessons or to facts one is trying to memorize : a final week to review the material before the exam; reviewing each aspect of their plan, step by step, before synchronizing their watches and setting off.