Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To examine and grasp the meaning of (written or printed characters, words, or sentences).
- v. To utter or render aloud (written or printed material): read poems to the students.
- v. To have the ability to examine and grasp the meaning of (written or printed material in a given language or notation): reads Chinese; reads music.
- v. To examine and grasp the meaning of (language in a form other than written or printed characters, words, or sentences): reading Braille; reading sign language.
- v. To examine and grasp the meaning of (a graphic representation): reading a map.
- v. To discern and interpret the nature or significance of through close examination or sensitive observation: The tracker read the trail for signs of game.
- v. To discern or anticipate through examination or observation; descry: "I can read abandonment in a broken door or shattered window” ( William H. Gass).
- v. To determine the intent or mood of: can read your mind like a book; a hard person to read.
- v. To attribute a certain interpretation or meaning to: read her words differently than I did.
- v. To consider (something written or printed) as having a particular meaning or significance: read the novel as a parable.
- v. To foretell or predict (the future).
- v. To receive or comprehend (a radio message, for example): I read you loud and clear.
- v. To study or make a study of: read history as an undergraduate.
- v. To learn or get knowledge of from something written or printed: read that interest rates would continue to rise.
- v. To proofread.
- v. To have or use as a preferred reading in a particular passage: For change read charge.
- v. To indicate, register, or show: The dial reads 32°.
- v. Computer Science To obtain (data) from a storage medium, such as a magnetic disk.
- v. Genetics To decode or translate a sequence of messenger RNA into an amino acid sequence in a polypeptide chain.
- v. To examine and grasp the meaning of printed or written characters, as of words or music.
- v. To speak aloud the words that one is reading: read to the children every night.
- v. To learn by reading: read about the storm in the paper today.
- v. To study.
- v. To have a particular wording: Recite the poem exactly as it reads.
- v. To contain a specific meaning: As the law reads, the defendant is guilty.
- v. To indicate, register, or show a measurement or figure: How does your new watch read?
- v. To have a specified character or quality for the reader: Your poems read well.
- n. Informal Something that is read: "The book is a page-turner as well as a very satisfying read” ( Frank Conroy).
- adj. Informed by reading; learned: only sparsely read in fields outside my profession.
- read out To read aloud: Please read out the names on the list.
- read up To study or learn by reading: Read up on the places you plan to visit before you travel.
- idiom. lecture To issue a reprimand: My parents read me a lecture because I had neglected my chores.
- idiom. read between the lines To perceive or detect an obscure or unexpressed meaning: learned to read between the lines of corporate annual reports to discern areas of fiscal weakness.
- idiom. read out of To expel by proclamation from a social, political, or other group: was read out of the secretariat after the embarrassing incident.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To counsel; advise; recommend.
- To teach; instil, as a lesson.
- To explain the meaning of; explain; interpret; make out; solve: as, to read a riddle; to read a dream.
- To declare; tell; rehearse.
- To suppose; guess; imagine; fancy.
- To understand by observation or scrutiny; acquire a knowledge of (something not otherwise obvious) by interpreting signs or indications; study out; interpret: as, to read the signs of the times; to read the sky or a person's countenance.
- To discover by observation or scrutiny; perceive from signs or indications.
- To observe and apprehend the meaning of (something written, printed, inscribed, or stamped in letters or other significant characters); go over with the eyes (or, in the case of the blind, with the fingers) and take in the meaning of (significant characters forming or representing words or sentences); peruse: as, to read a book, newspaper, poem, inscription, or piece of music.
- To note the indication of (a graduated instrument): as, to read a thermometer or a circle.
- To utter aloud: said of words or sounds represented by letters or other significant characters.
- To peruse or study (a subject in the books written about it); learn through reading: as, to read law or philosophy; to read science for a degree; to read the news; we read that the meek shall inherit the earth.
- To perceive or assume in the reading or study of a book or writing (something not expressed or directly indicated); impute or import by inference: as, to read a meaning in a book which the author did not intend; to read one's own notions into a book; to read something between the lines.
- To affect by reading so as to bring into a specified condition: as, to read a child asleep; to read one's self blind.
- To read about.
- To counsel; advise; give advice or warning.
- To speak; discourse; declare; tell.
- To peruse something written or printed; acquire information from a record of any kind.
- To utter aloud the words of something written or printed; enunciate the words of a book or writing.
- In music: To perform or render music at first sight of the notes: applied to either vocal or instrumental performance: as, he plays well, but reads very slowly.
- To perform or render music in a particular way; put a certain expression upon it; interpret it: used of a performer or conductor.
- To give a recital or lecture; rehearse something written or learned: as, to read before a public audience.
- To study systematically from books or writings: sometimes with up.
- To appear on reading; have a (specified) meaning.
- To have a certain quality or effect in perusal; used absolutely, to be suitable or desirable for perusal.
- Having knowledge gained from reading; instructed by reading; in general, versed: now usually with well: as, well read in the classics.
- n. Counsel; advice.
- n. Interpretation.
- n. Speech; tale; narrative.
- n. A saying; a proverb.
- n. Reading; perusal.
- An obsolete form of red.
- A dialectal form of red.
Wiktionary
- n. A reading or an act of reading, especially an actor's part of a play.
- v. simple past tense and past participle of read.
- v. To think, believe; to consider (that).
- v. To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.
- v. To speak aloud words or other information that is written. Often construed with a to phrase or an indirect object.
- v. To interpret or infer a meaning, significance, etc.
- v. To consist of certain text.
- v. Of text, etc, to be interpreted or read in a particular way.
- v. To substitute (a corrected piece of text in place of an erroneous one); used to introduce an emendation of a text.
- v. Used after a euphemism to introduce the intended, more blunt meaning of a term.
- v. To be able to hear what another person is saying over a radio connection.
- v. To make a special study of, as by perusing textbooks.
- v. to recognise (someone) as being transgender
- adj. red
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Rennet. See 3d reed.
- v. To advise; to counsel.
- v. To interpret; to explain.
- v. To tell; to declare; to recite.
- v. To go over, as characters or words, and utter aloud, or recite to one's self inaudibly; to take in the sense of, as of language, by interpreting the characters with which it is expressed; to peruse
- v. Hence, to know fully; to comprehend.
- v. To discover or understand by characters, marks, features, etc.; to learn by observation.
- v. To make a special study of, as by perusing textbooks.
- v. To give advice or counsel.
- v. To tell; to declare.
- v. To perform the act of reading; to peruse, or to go over and utter aloud, the words of a book or other like document.
- v. To study by reading.
- v. To learn by reading.
- v. To appear in writing or print; to be expressed by, or consist of, certain words or characters.
- v. To produce a certain effect when read.
- n. Saying; sentence; maxim; hence, word; advice; counsel. See rede.
- n. Reading.
- imp. & p. p. of read, v. t. & i.
- adj. Instructed or knowing by reading; versed in books; learned.
WordNet 3.0
- v. audition for a stage role by reading parts of a role
- v. be a student of a certain subject
- v. have or contain a certain wording or form
- v. interpret the significance of, as of palms, tea leaves, intestines, the sky; also of human behavior
- v. interpret something in a certain way; convey a particular meaning or impression
- v. look at, interpret, and say out loud something that is written or printed
- v. make sense of a language
- v. interpret something that is written or printed
- v. indicate a certain reading; of gauges and instruments
- n. something that is read
- v. obtain data from magnetic tapes
- v. to hear and understand
Etymologies
- Middle English reden, from Old English rǣdan, to advise; see ar- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“ Larry later read& line-edited all the novels; we heard read aloud every chap. 1 at semester's end.”
“JLenard..read his username phonectically and then read his comment...”
If the Florida GOP Can Do It, So Can the NRSC - Erick’s blog - RedState
“As a middle school teacher actively *trying* to get kids out there to read science fiction and fantasy heck, getting kids to *read*, period!”
“Folks…I just read this on DailyKos..read it if you want to feel better and a tad more hopeful about the press and holding GW to account.”
Think Progress » Bush: I’m Sending More Troops To Iraq No Matter What Congress Does
“He was indeed a prodigious Scholar; he had learn'd the_ Alcoran, _and was well initiated into Human Learning before he was Ten years old; then he studied Logick and Arithmetick, and read over Euclid without any help, only his Master show'd him how to demonstrate the first five or six Propositions; Then he read_ Ptolemy's Almagest,”
The Improvement of Human Reason Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan
“In short, I hope the reader who is now looking at this preface will carefully read every word in the following pages; and not only _read_, but _remember_, the lessons there taught, and thereby become wiser and better.”
“If you wanted to educate a child, would you teach him to read one play of Shakespeare, or would you teach him to _read_?”
“I was also forbidden to read the only one of Ouida's books which I wished to read "Under Two Flags.”
“Now, at this very moment a child's voice from the neighbouring house began repeating in a kind of chant: "_Take and read, take and read_.”
“For the text which refers to the man 'who has read the Veda' enjoins works on him who has merely _read_ the texts, and _reading_ there means nothing more than the apprehension of the aggregate of syllables called”
The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja — Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘read’.
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On with their heads!
Words that make other words with the addition of one letter at the beginning. The resulting words are tagged "behead".
men, his, yes, any, iota, limb, aged, laid, land, lead, read, word and 315 more...
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webdev
random webdev lingo / common words used in computer programming.
( randomness, words )ajax, user, admin, frontend, backend, database, sql, protocol, call, dom, layout, ui and 392 more...
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popupstorybook's heteronym list
I like heteronyms--two words with identical spelling but different pronunciations. Here are a few off the top of my head. Feel free to add more. *Here's a challenge: use these words to create se...
entrance, resume, dove, construct, wind, produce, live, appropriate, slough, buffet, project, invalid and 7 more...
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Freedom to Read
freedom, read, liberty, success, enjoyment, learning, skill, ability, accomplishment, achievement, intellectual, joy and 11 more...
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PMPope's list
Words for Words
asterix, garrulous, ampersand, exclaimation, ponderous, fickle, finale, etheric, solar, astronomic, plummeting, fogline and 33 more...
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Test words
vacation, tourist, tourist office, travel, read, newspaper, book, magazine, television, music, radio, nightclub and 68 more...

EditorMark Recently came across this usage in regard to having an original musical composition played by musicians: "Has this been read yet?" May 30, 2010
yarb It's even more boring in the past tense. Read. Thud. Bed. Dud. Aug 5, 2008
chained_bear How could this be such a boring word for such an incredibly mind-expanding, tremendously important activity? Aug 5, 2008
oroboros present tense v. past tense. Nov 21, 2007