read
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: rēd
ipa: /ɹiːd/
ipa: /ɹid/
ipa: /rɛːd/
ipa: /riːd/
rhymes: -iːd
homophone: reed
homophone: rede
Forms: form: reads
form: reading
form: read
form: read
form: readen
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: read
form: read
form: read
form: redd
form: read
form: readest
form: read
form: redd
form: readst
form: reads
form: readeth
form: read
form: redd
form: read
form: read
form: redd
form: read
form: read
form: redd
form: read
form: -
form: reading
form: read
form: readen
Etymology: From Middle English reden, from Old English rǣdan (“to counsel, advise, consult; interpret, read”), from Proto-West Germanic *rādan, from Proto-Germanic *rēdaną (“advise, counsel”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₁dʰ- (“to arrange”).
Cognate with Scots rede, red (“to advise, counsel, decipher, read”), Saterland Frisian räide (“to advise, counsel”), West Frisian riede (“to advise, counsel”), Dutch raden (“to advise; guess”), German raten (“to advise; guess”), Danish råde (“to advise”), Swedish råda (“to advise, counsel”), Persian رده (rade, “to order, to arrange, class”). In West Germanic the verb had a sense “interpret”, which developed further into “interpret letters” in English and “interpret by intuition, guess” on the continent. Compare rede.
Senses: examples: text: Have you read this book?
text: He doesn’t like to read.
text: During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant[…]
ref: 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond:
text: She reads Playgirl magazine, goes to a male-strip joint and then complains about sexual harassment on the job.
ref: 1982, Robert M. Evenson, “"Liberated" Woman"”, in The Cincinnati Enquirer:
text: On this occasion he was carrying in his right hand a copy of the English-language China News, an odd touch because the President did not read English.
ref: 1983, James C. H. Shen, “A Round of Calls”, in Robert Myers, editor, The U.S. & Free China: How the U.S. Sold Out Its Ally, Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books Ltd., →ISBN, page 112:
synonyms: interpret
make out
make sense of
understand
scan
glosses: To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.
examples: text: Arabic reads right to left.
text: That sentence reads strangely.
synonyms: interpret
make out
make sense of
understand
scan
glosses: To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.
To be understood or physically read in a specific way.
raw_tags: of text
examples: text: At the moment I'm reading Milton.
synonyms: interpret
make out
make sense of
understand
scan
glosses: To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.
To read a work or works written by the named author.
examples: text: He read us a passage from his new book.
text: All right, class, who wants to read next?
text: In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […] and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: He read the letter aloud. Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement. […]
ref: 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
synonyms: read aloud
read out
read out loud
speak
glosses: To speak aloud words or other information that is written. (often construed with a to phrase or an indirect object)
examples: text: She read my mind and promptly rose to get me a glass of water.
text: I can read his feelings in his face.
glosses: To interpret, or infer a meaning, significance, thought, intention, etc., from.
examples: text: On the door hung a sign that read "No admittance".
synonyms: say
run
glosses: To consist of certain text.
examples: text: In Livy, it is nearly certain that for Pylleon we should read Pteleon, as this place is mentioned in connection with Antron.
ref: 1832, John Lemprière et al., Bibliotheca classica, Seventh Edition, W. E. Dean, page 263
text: The sign of coefficient a(3) in the general formula of Table 2 should be plus instead of minus. Thus, the formula should read […]
ref: 2001, Astronomy & Astrophysics, volume 376, issue 3, p. 1039
synonyms: sic pro
glosses: To substitute a corrected piece of text in place of an erroneous one; used to introduce an emendation of a text.
examples: text: Our school focuses primarily on the liberal arts (read "useless degrees").
text: Eliminate illogical (read: stupid) answer choices.
ref: 2009, Suzee Vlk et al., The GRE Test for Dummies, 6th edition, Wiley Publishing, →ISBN, page 191:
text: Parents, meanwhile, deplored [Bratz dolls] as far too adult (read: slutty) for kids, accusing the doe-eyed, pouty-lipped toys of fostering unhealthy body images among young girls.
ref: 2010 December 23, Tamara Weston, “From Tickle Me Elmo to Squinkies: Top 10 Toy Crazes”, in Time:
text: I also did a long-wear test, as y'do and after scoffing my face with some food (read: I am feral when it comes to a midday snack, so what), the striking colour that I was wearing, named 'Jet', had stayed put. Pigment, check ✅.
ref: 2023 May 12, Lia Mappoura, “I tried Glossier's brand new G Suit lip crèmes so you don't have to – you're welcome”, in Cosmopolitan:
synonyms: sic pro
glosses: To substitute a corrected piece of text in place of an erroneous one; used to introduce an emendation of a text.
Used to introduce a blunter, actually intended meaning.
examples: text: Do you read me?
text: Hello, HAL. Do you read me, HAL?
ref: 1968, Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey, spoken by Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea):
topics: communications
electrical-engineering
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
telecommunications
synonyms: copy
hear
receive
glosses: To be able to hear what another person is saying over a radio connection.
examples: text: A repeater signal may be used where the track geometry makes the main signal difficult to read from a distance.
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: To observe and comprehend (a displayed signal).
examples: text: I am reading theology at university.
text: Crabbe wanted him to go to England, to read for a degree there.
ref: 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 94:
synonyms: learn
study
qualifier: except Scotland
glosses: To study (a subject) at a high level, especially at university.
examples: text: to read a hard disk
text: to read a port
text: to read the keyboard
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To fetch data from (a storage medium, etc.).
examples: text: Every time I go outside, I worry that someone will read me.
synonyms: clock
glosses: To recognise (someone) as being transgender.
examples: text: I've seen drags "read" an unattractive transsexual until she was almost in tears.
ref: 1976 August 7, Tommi Avicolli, “The Politics of Camp”, in Gay Community News, page 9:
text: Snapping, we are told, comes from reading, or exposing hidden flaws in a person's life, and out of reading comes shade […]
ref: 1997, Framing Culture: Africanism, Sexuality and Performance, page 186 (also discussing Paris is Burning)
text: CB [a black gay person being quoted]: "So, one time I read him and we were standing downstairs at the front desk in the dorm and I read him and there was this little bell […]." In the first example, the interviewee [CB] used snapping to read his white friend in a playful way, […].
ref: 2003, Philip Auslander, Performance: Media and technology, page 179:
text: [One] assumes that such language contests are racially motivated—black folks talking back to white folks. However, the ball world makes it clear that blacks can read each other too.
ref: 2013, Queer Looks, page 114 (discussing Paris is Burning and "the ball world")
qualifier: at first especially in the black LGBTQ community
glosses: To call attention to the flaws of (someone) in a playful, taunting, or insulting way.
qualifier: go
glosses: To imagine sequences of potential moves and responses without actually placing stones.
examples: text: But now, faire Ladie, comfort to you make, / And read[…] / That short reuenge the man may ouertake […]
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: To think, believe; to consider (that).
examples: text: [T]herfore / I red the [thee] / gete the [thee] to Gods vvorde ãd [and] therby trye all doctrine and agenſt that receave nothinge.
ref: 1528 October 12 (Gregorian calendar), William Tyndale, “The .IIIJ. Senses of yͤ Scripture”, in The Obediẽce of a Christen Man […], [Antwerp]: [Johannes Hoochstraten], →OCLC, folio cxlvi, verso:
text: This is the wandring wood, this Errours den, / A monster vile, whom God and man does hate: / Therefore I read beware.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 6:
glosses: To advise; to counsel. See rede.
examples: text: But read how art thou named, and of what kin.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: To tell; to declare; to recite.
Synonyms: word: read
Hyponyms: word: skim
Derived terms: arread
beread
beta-read
book-read
cold read
dictated but not read
half-read
hate-read
have one's head read
leave someone on read
lip read
lip-read
mind-read
misread
must-read
overread
readable
read across
read along
read-along
read-aloud
read-around ratio
read between the lines
read dating
read 'em and weep
reader
read-eval-print loop
read for
read for filth
read for press
read-in
read in
reading
read into
read like a book
read like an open book
read lips
read me
read-me file
read minds
read my lips
read off
read oneself in
read-only
read-only access
read-only memory
read out
read over
read receipt
read someone for filth
read someone like a book
read someone's beads
read someone's lips
read someone's mind
read someone the riot act
read someone to filth
read the green
read the mail
read the room
read the table
read through
read-through
read up
read up on
read-write
RTFM
sensitivity read
sight read
sight-read
speedread
take something as read
teach to read and write
too long
didn't read
underread
unread
well-read
world-read
WORM/write once, read many