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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. The original words of something written or printed, as opposed to a paraphrase, translation, revision, or condensation.
  2. n. The words of a speech appearing in print.
  3. n. Words, as of a libretto, that are set to music in a composition.
  4. n. Words treated as data by a computer.
  5. n. The body of a printed work as distinct from headings and illustrative matter on a page or from front and back matter in a book.
  6. n. One of the editions or forms of a written work: After examining all three manuscripts, he published a new text of the poem.
  7. n. Something, such as a literary work or other cultural product, regarded as an object of critical analysis.
  8. n. A passage from the Scriptures or another authoritative source chosen for the subject of a discourse or cited for support in argument.
  9. n. A passage from a written work used as the starting point of a discussion.
  10. n. A subject; a topic.
  11. n. A textbook.
  12. v. To send a text message to: She texted me when she arrived.
  13. v. To communicate by text message: He texted that he would be late.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A discourse or composition on which a note or commentary is written; the original words of an author, in distinction from a paraphrase or commentary.
  2. n. Specifically, the letter of the Scriptures, more especially in the original languages; in a more limited sense, any passage of Scripture quoted in proof of a dogmatic position, or taken as the subject or motive of a discourse from the pulpit.
  3. n. Any subject chosen to enlarge and comment on; a topic; a theme.
  4. n. In vocal music, the words sung, or to be sung.
  5. n. The main body of matter in a book or manuscript, in distinction from notes or other matter associated with it; by extension, letterpress or reading-matter in general, in distinction from illustrations, or from blank spaces or margins: as, an island of text in an ocean of margin.
  6. n. A kind of writing used in the text or body of clerkly manuscripts; formal handwriting; now, especially, a writing or type of form peculiar to some class of old manuscripts; specifically, in heraldry, Old English black-letter: as, German or English text; a text (black-letter) R or T. An Old English letter often occurs as a bearing or part of a bearing, and is blazoned as above. See also black-letter. Compare church text and German text.
  7. To write in texthand or large characters.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A writing consisting of multiple glyphs, characters, symbols or sentences.
  2. n. A book, tome or other set of writings.
  3. n. colloquial A brief written message transmitted between mobile phones; an SMS text message.
  4. n. computing Data which can be interpreted as human-readable text (often contrasted with binary data).
  5. v. transitive To send a text message to; i.e. to transmit text using the Short Message Service (SMS), or a similar service, between communications devices, particularly mobile phones.
  6. v. transitive To send (a message) to someone by SMS.
  7. v. intransitive To send and receive text messages.
  8. v. To write in large characters, as in text hand.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A discourse or composition on which a note or commentary is written; the original words of an author, in distinction from a paraphrase, annotation, or commentary.
  2. n. (O. Eng. Law), rare The four Gospels, by way of distinction or eminence.
  3. n. A verse or passage of Scripture, especially one chosen as the subject of a sermon, or in proof of a doctrine.
  4. n. Hence, anything chosen as the subject of an argument, literary composition, or the like; topic; theme.
  5. n. A style of writing in large characters; text-hand also, a kind of type used in printing.
  6. n. That part of a document (printed or electronic) comprising the words, especially the main body of expository words, in contrast to the illustrations, pictures, charts, tables, or other formatted material which contain graphic elements as a major component.
  7. n. Any communication composed of words.
  8. n. a textbook.
  9. v. obsolete To write in large characters, as in text hand.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. the main body of a written work (as distinct from illustrations or footnotes etc.)
  2. n. a book prepared for use in schools or colleges
  3. n. a passage from the Bible that is used as the subject of a sermon
  4. n. the words of something written

Etymologies

  1. From Latin textus, perfect passive participle of texō ("weave"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English texte, from Old French, from Late Latin textus, written account, from Latin, structure, context, body of a passage, from past participle of texere, to weave, fabricate. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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Lists

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Comments

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  • Telofy Wow, this article is so intriguing and hilarious, if I wanted to cite it here I’d end up copying it whole:
    Pen Ultimate / Keep it short, twit

    (Funny, not only if you’re pin–pen merged.) Nov 5, 2009

  • reesetee Haha! Jun 4, 2009

  • chained_bear Text Messages That Would Have Been Helpful. A little history humor... Aug 26, 2008

  • chained_bear I never hear it pronounced "text," rolig, at least not in the past tense. It's always "tex-ted," or even "teck-sted." Dec 6, 2007

  • bilby I don't feel the need for a verb here, hence I can't suggest a pronunciation for texted as it has never sullied my lips. What I hear is almost tegs-td. Dec 5, 2007

  • rolig How does one say "texted"? My feeling is that, exceptionally, it should be one syllable, with the second t silent to rhyme with "sexed". (I guess this would mean the past form would be pronounced the same as the main form, "text" - tekst.) Or do people tend to say "tex-ted"? Dec 5, 2007

  • kewpid In the HSC, the bar was set even lower. Everything from a bus ticket to the works of Shakespeare was a "text" for analysis. This caused much consternation for traditionalists. Nevertheless, I am sure the "composer" of bus tickets would be grateful for all the "responders" he can get. Dec 5, 2007

  • seanahan Why is texted clumsy? It seems perfectly fine to me, and I don't particularly like text messages. Feb 26, 2007

  • pamelad To send an SMS. Past tense texted is very clumsy.

    Something studied in a high school English class, could be a film or a comic. Feb 26, 2007

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‘text’ has been looked up 4972 times, loved by 3 people, added to 28 lists, commented on 10 times, and has a Scrabble score of 11.