Pronunciations (6)
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/ɹiːd/
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
- New-Zealand
- UK
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/ɹid/
Pronunciation notes
- Canada
- General-American
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/rɛːd/
Pronunciation notes
- Early
- Modern
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/riːd/
Pronunciation notes
- Early
- Modern
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ɹɛd
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ɹid
Verb
To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.
Usage- Intransitive
- Transitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
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I like to read at night.
Have you read this book?
He doesn’t like to read.
More examples (3)
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[…]
She reads Playgirl magazine, goes to a male-strip joint and then complains about sexual harassment on the job.
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.
To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written. To be understood or physically read in a specific way.
Usage- ergative
- Intransitive
- Transitive
- of text
- Examples
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Arabic reads right to left.
That sentence reads strangely.
More examples (1)
Place-names throughout the 4,000-mile-long passage read like a roster of those who challenged its icy labyrinths of more than 18,000 islands—Baffin, Hudson, Davis, Foxe, Parry, Bylot, Sverdrup.
To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written. To read a work or works written by the named author.
Usage- Intransitive
- metonymically
- Transitive
- Examples
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At the moment I'm reading Milton.
To speak aloud words or other information that is written. (often construed with a to phrase or an indirect object)
Usage- Intransitive
- Transitive
- Examples
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She reads a story to the children.
He read us a passage from his new book.
All right, class, who wants to read next?
More examples (2)
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.
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. […]
To interpret, or infer a meaning, significance, thought, intention, etc., from.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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I could read the worry in his face.
She read my mind and promptly rose to get me a glass of water.
I can read his feelings in his face.
To consist of certain text.
- Examples
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The sign reads "No parking".
On the door hung a sign that read "No admittance".
To substitute a corrected piece of text in place of an erroneous one; used to introduce an emendation of a text.
Usage- ergative
- Synonyms
- Examples
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In Livy, it is nearly certain that for Pylleon we should read Pteleon, as this place is mentioned in connection with Antron.
The sign of coefficient a(3) in the general formula of Table 2 should be plus instead of minus. Thus, the formula should read […]
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.
Usage- broadly
- ergative
- Humorous
- imperative
- Ironic
- usually
- Examples
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Our school focuses primarily on the liberal arts (read "useless degrees").
Eliminate illogical (read: stupid) answer choices.
More examples (2)
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.
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 ✅.
To be able to hear what another person is saying over a radio connection.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Do you read me?
Hello, HAL. Do you read me, HAL?
To observe and comprehend (a displayed signal).
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Read the temperature on the screen.
A repeater signal may be used where the track geometry makes the main signal difficult to read from a distance.
To study (a subject) at a high level, especially at university.
Usage- Commonwealth usage
- Transitive
- Examples
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She is reading history at university.
I am reading theology at university.
Crabbe wanted him to go to England, to read for a degree there.
To fetch data from (a storage medium, etc.).
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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The computer cannot read this file.
to read a hard disk
to read a port
More examples (1)
to read the keyboard
To recognise (someone) as being transgender.
Usage- Transitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
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Every time I go outside, I worry that someone will read me.
To call attention to the flaws of (someone) in a playful, taunting, or insulting way.
- Examples
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I've seen drags "read" an unattractive transsexual until she was almost in tears.
Snapping, we are told, comes from reading, or exposing hidden flaws in a person's life, and out of reading comes shade […]
More examples (2)
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, […].
[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.
To imagine sequences of potential moves and responses without actually placing stones.
To think, believe; to consider (that).
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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But now, faire Ladie, comfort to you make, / And read[…] / That short reuenge the man may ouertake […]
To advise; to counsel. See rede.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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[T]herfore / I red the [thee] / gete the [thee] to Gods vvorde ãd [and] therby trye all doctrine and agenſt that receave nothinge.
This is the wandring wood, this Errours den, / A monster vile, whom God and man does hate: / Therefore I read beware.
To tell; to declare; to recite.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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But read how art thou named, and of what kin.
To predict another player's actions before they perform them or before they are apparent.
Noun
A reading or an act of reading, especially of an actor's part of a play or a piece of stored data.
- Examples
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I had a read of the evening papers.
One newswoman here lets magazines for a penny a read.
More examples (2)
And when he finishes supper / Planning to have a read at the evening paper / It's Put a screw in this wall— / He has no time at all[…]
In other words, the system can do 1200 reads per second with no writes, the average write is twice as slow as the average read, and the relationship is linear.
Something to be read; a written work.
Usage- In compounds
- Examples
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This novel is a good read.
His thrillers are always a gripping read.
A person's interpretation or impression of something.
- Examples
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What's your read of the current political situation?
On the quarterback's first read of the situation, his target receiver was not open.
An instance of reading (“calling attention to someone's flaws; a taunt or insult”).
- Examples
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[As] Corey points out, "if you and I are both black queens then we can't call each other black queens because that's not a read. That's a [fact]."
Like most African-American women, Pearlie Mae uses snapping in many of the same ways that black gay men use it: to accentuate a read.
More examples (1)
I learned that it was acceptable to be witty, especially if you were one of the wearblackallthetime, deconstructivist, radical, feministbitchydiva girls who could give a harsh read (i.e., critique) or throw shade […].
The identification of a specific sequence of genes in a genome or bases in a nucleic acid string.
Noun
something that is read
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the article was a very good read
Verb
interpret something that is written or printed
- Examples
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read the advertisement
Have you read Salman Rushdie?
have or contain a certain wording or form
- Synonyms
- Examples
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The passage reads as follows
What does the law say?
look at, interpret, and say out loud something that is written or printed
- Examples
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The King will read the proclamation at noon
obtain data from magnetic tapes or other digital sources
- Synonyms
- Examples
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This dictionary can be read by the computer
interpret the significance of, as of palms, tea leaves, intestines, the sky; also of human behavior
- Examples
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She read the sky and predicted rain
I can't read his strange behavior
More examples (1)
The fortune teller read his fate in the crystal ball
interpret something in a certain way; convey a particular meaning or impression
- Synonyms
- Examples
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I read this address as a satire
How should I take this message?
be a student of a certain subject
- Examples
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She is reading for the bar exam
indicate a certain reading; of gauges and instruments
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The thermometer showed thirteen degrees below zero
The gauge read ‘empty’
audition for a stage role by reading parts of a role
- Examples
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He is auditioning for ‘Julius Caesar’ at Stratford this year
to hear and understand
- Broader terms
- Examples
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I read you loud and clear!
make sense of a language
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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She understands French
Can you read Greek?