Reconnaissance

1. n. An examination of a territory, or of an enemy’s position, for the purpose of obtaining information necessary for directing military operations; a preparatory expedition.
2. n. The act of reconnoitering; preliminary examination or survey.
3. n. An examination or survey of a region in reference to its general geological character.
4. n. An examination of a region as to its general natural features, preparatory to a more particular survey for the purposes of triangulation, or of determining the location of a public work.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.