read

A painting of a girl reading

Meanings

Verb

  • To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.
  • To speak aloud words or other information that is written. Often construed with a to phrase or an indirect object.
  • To read work(s) written by (a named author).
  • To interpret, or infer a meaning, significance, thought, intention, etc. from.
  • To consist of certain text.
  • Of text, etc., to be interpreted or read in a particular way.
  • To substitute (a corrected piece of text in place of an erroneous one); .
  • To be able to hear what another person is saying over a radio connection.
  • To observe and comprehend (a displayed signal)
  • To make a special study of, as by perusing textbooks.
  • To fetch data from (a storage medium, etc.).
  • To think, believe; to consider (that).
  • To advise; to counsel. See rede.
  • To tell; to declare; to recite.
  • To recognise (someone) as being transgender.
  • To call attention to the flaws of (someone) in either a playful, a taunting, or an insulting way.

Noun

  • A reading or an act of reading, especially of an actor's part of a play or a piece of stored data.
  • Something to be read; a written work.
  • A person's interpretation or impression of something.
  • An instance of read.
  • The identification of a specific sequence of genes in a genome or bases in a nucleic acid string

Origin

  • From Middle English reden, from Old English rǣdan ("to counsel, advise, consult; interpret, read"), from Proto-Germanic *rēdaną ("advise, counsel"), from Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₁dʰ- ("to arrange"). Cognate with Scots rede, red, Saterland Frisian räide ("to advise, counsel"), West Frisian riede ("to advise, counsel"), Dutch raden ("to advise; guess, counsel, rede"), German raten ("to advise; guess"), Danish råde ("to advise"), Swedish råda ("to advise, counsel"). The development from ‘advise’ to ‘interpret, interpret letters, read’ is unique to English among Germanic languages. Compare rede.
  • From Middle English redde, red, rad, from Old English rǣdde, rǣded, conjugations of rǣdan; see above.

Modern English dictionary

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