in Law, is an obligation of record, which a man enters into before some court of record or magistrate duly authorised, with condition to do some particular act; as to appear at the assizes, to keep the peace, to pay a debt, or the like. It is in most respects like another bond: the difference being chiefly this, that the bond is the creation of a fresh debt or obligation de novo, the recognizance is an acknowledgement of a former debt upon record; the form whereof is, "that A. B. doth acknowledge to owe to our lord the king, to the plaintiff, to C. D. or the like, the sum of ten pounds," with condition to be void on performance of the thing stipulated: in which case the king, the plaintiff, C. D. &c. is called the cognizor, is ei cognoscitur; as he that enters into the recognizance is called the cognizor, is qui cognoscit. This being certified to, or taken by the officer of some court, is witnessed only by the record of that court, and not by the party's seal: so that it is not in strict propriety a deed, though the effects of it are greater than a common obligation; being allowed a priority in point of payment, and binding the lands of the cognizor from the time of enrolment on record.