response

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of responding.
2. n. A reply or an answer.
3. n. A reaction, as that of an organism or a mechanism, to a specific stimulus.
4. n. Ecclesiastical Something that is spoken or sung by a congregation or choir in answer to the officiating minister or priest.
5. n. A responsory.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An answer or reply, or something in the nature of an answer or reply.
2. n. More specifically— An oracular answer.
3. n. In liturgics: A verse, sentence, phrase, or word said or sung by the choir or congregation in sequence or reply to the priest or officiant. Among the most ancient responses besides the responsories (which see) arc Et cum spiritu tuo after the Dominus vobiscum, Habemus ad Dominum after the Sursum Corda, Amen, etc. Sometimes the response is a repetition of something said by the officiant. A verse which has its own response subjoined, the two together often forming one sentence, is called a versicle. In liturgical books the signs and are often prefixed to the versicle and response respectively. Also (formerly) responsal.
4. n. A versicle or anthem said or sung during or after a lection; a respond or responsory.
5. n. Reply to an objection in formal disputation.
6. n. In music, sume as answer, 2 .
7. n. The act of responding or replying; reply: as, to speak in response to a question.
8. n. In biology, the reaction of a living being to a stimulus by a change that is brought about by its organic machinery and is fitted to prepare it for or protect it from some external change of which the stimulus is the sign, signal, or constant antecedent in that order of events which has prevailed in the ordinary or average environment of its species; the reaction of a living being to a stimulus by a change that, so far as we understand it, commends itself to our reason as prudent and judicious. Winking when a blow is threatened, considered as a means for protecting the eyeball from threatened danger, and the growth of the radicle of the germinating seedling toward moisture and soluble food under the stimulus of gravity, while the plumule grows toward the sunlight and the air under the same stimulus, are illustrations of response as an answer, as contrasted with ‘reaction’ in the ordinary meaning of the latter word. While a response may commend itself to the reason, it is not essential that it be understood by the being that exhibits it. The chick runs to its mother for protection from threatened danger when its auditory machinery is stimulated by her warning cry, although it may not know the source of danger nor even what danger and protection are. Since the stimulus that leads to a responsive act is a signal which may be misinterpreted, any living being may make blunders or be misled, as we may ourselves be deceived when we think we know more than the facts warrant. The study of the physical properties of stimuli and the study of the structure and functional activity of organisms are valuable aids in the study of response, but its essential characteristic—that which makes it an answer, its meaning—is not to be found in the living body. Its existence is in the relation between the living being or its ancestors and the average environment of the species.
9. n. In physiology, the reaction of a living body or an organ or part of such a body to a stimulus, considered apart from any biological meaning that it may or may not have.

Wiktionary

1. n. An answer or reply, or something in the nature of an answer or reply.
2. n. The act of responding or replying; reply: as, to speak in response to a question.
3. n. An oracular answer.
4. n. A verse, sentence, phrase, or word said or sung by the choir or congregation in sequence or reply to the priest or officiant.
5. n. A versicle or anthem said or sung during or after a lection; a respond or responsory.
6. n. A reply to an objection in formal disputation.
7. n. An online advertising performance metric representing one click-through from an online ad to its destination URL

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of responding.
2. n. An answer or reply.
3. n. Reply to an objection in formal disputation.
4. n. (Eccl.) The answer of the people or congregation to the priest or clergyman, in the litany and other parts of divine service.
5. n. (R.C.Ch.) A kind of anthem sung after the lessons of matins and some other parts of the office.
6. n. (Mus.) A repetition of the given subject in a fugue by another part on the fifth above or fourth below.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the manner in which an electrical or mechanical device responds to an input signal or a range of input signals
2. n. a phrase recited or sung by the congregation following a versicle by the priest or minister
3. n. the manner in which something is greeted
4. n. the speech act of continuing a conversational exchange
5. n. a bodily process occurring due to the effect of some antecedent stimulus or agent
6. n. a result
7. n. a statement (either spoken or written) that is made to reply to a question or request or criticism or accusation