read

English Online Dictionary. What means read‎? What does read mean?

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English reden, from Old English rǣdan (“to counsel, advise, consult; interpret, read”), from Proto-West Germanic *rādan, from Proto-Germanic *rēdaną (“advise, counsel”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₁dʰ- (“to arrange”).

Cognate with Scots rede, red (“to advise, counsel, decipher, read”), Saterland Frisian räide (“to advise, counsel”), West Frisian riede (“to advise, counsel”), Dutch raden (“to advise; guess”), German raten (“to advise; guess”), Danish råde (“to advise”), Swedish råda (“to advise, counsel”), Persian رده (rade, “to order, to arrange, class”). In West Germanic the verb had a sense “interpret”, which developed further into “interpret letters” in English and “interpret by intuition, guess” on the continent. Compare rede.

Pronunciation

• (UK, Canada) enPR: rēd, IPA^(key): /ɹiːd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɹid/
• (Early Modern) IPA^(key): /rɛːd/, /riːd/
• Rhymes: -iːd
• Homophones: reed, rede

Verb

read (third-person singular simple present reads, present participle reading, simple past read, past participle read or (archaic, dialectal) readen)

1. (transitive or intransitive) To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.

   Synonyms: interpret, make out, make sense of, understand, scan

   1. (ergative, of text) To be understood or physically read in a specific way.

   2. (transitive, metonymic) To read a work or works written by the named author.
2. (transitive or intransitive) To speak aloud words or other information that is written. (often construed with a to phrase or an indirect object)

   Synonyms: read aloud, read out, read out loud, speak
3. (transitive) To interpret, or infer a meaning, significance, thought, intention, etc., from.

4. To consist of certain text.

   Synonym: say

5. (ergative) To substitute a corrected piece of text in place of an erroneous one; used to introduce an emendation of a text.

   Synonym: sic pro

   • 1832, John Lemprière et al., Bibliotheca classica, Seventh Edition, W. E. Dean, page 263:

     In Livy, it is nearly certain that for Pylleon we should read Pteleon, as this place is mentioned in connection with Antron.

   • 2001, Astronomy & Astrophysics, volume 376, issue 3, p. 1039:

     The sign of coefficient a(3) in the general formula of Table 2 should be plus instead of minus. Thus, the formula should read […]

   1. (by extension, ironic or humorous, usually imperative) Used to introduce a blunter, actually intended meaning.
6. (transitive, telecommunications) To be able to hear what another person is saying over a radio connection.

   Synonyms: copy, hear, receive
7. (transitive, rail transport) To observe and comprehend (a displayed signal).

8. (transitive, Commonwealth, except Scotland) To study (a subject) at a high level, especially at university.

   Synonyms: learn, study
9. (computing, transitive) To fetch data from (a storage medium, etc.).

10. (transitive, LGBTQ) To recognise (someone) as being transgender.

    Synonym: clock

11. (at first especially in the black LGBTQ community) To call attention to the flaws of (someone) in a playful, taunting, or insulting way.
    • 1997, Framing Culture: Africanism, Sexuality and Performance, page 186 (also discussing Paris is Burning):

      Snapping, we are told, comes from reading, or exposing hidden flaws in a person's life, and out of reading comes shade […]

    • 2013, Queer Looks, page 114 (discussing Paris is Burning and "the ball world"):

      [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.

12. (go) To imagine sequences of potential moves and responses without actually placing stones.
13. (obsolete) To think, believe; to consider (that).
14. (obsolete) To advise; to counsel. See rede.
15. (obsolete) To tell; to declare; to recite.

Usage notes

• Unlike the much less common sic pro which is set off in square brackets, admonitions for the reader to emend a quote to read a separate meaning are typically put within parentheses.
• The past tense and past participle are pronounced /ɹɛd/.

Conjugation

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

read (plural reads)

1. A reading or an act of reading, especially of an actor's part of a play or a piece of stored data.
2. (in combination) Something to be read; a written work.

3. A person's interpretation or impression of something.

4. (at first especially in the black LGBTQ community) An instance of reading (“calling attention to someone's flaws; a taunt or insult”).
   • 1997, Framing Culture: Africanism, Sexuality and Performance, page 186 (also discussing Paris is Burning):

     [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]."
5. (biochemistry) The identification of a specific sequence of genes in a genome or bases in a nucleic acid string

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English redde (simple past), red, rad (past participle), from Old English rǣdde (simple past), (ġe)rǣded (past participle), conjugations of rǣdan (“to read”); see above.

Pronunciation

• enPR: rĕd, IPA^(key): /ɹɛd/
• Rhymes: -ɛd
• Homophones: red, redd

Verb

read

1. inflection of read:
   1. simple past tense
   2. past participle

References

See also

English terms starting with “read”

Anagrams

• 'eard, DARE, Dare, Dear, Rade, Reda, ared, dare, dear, rade

Estonian

Noun

read

1. nominative plural of rida

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *raud, from Proto-Germanic *raudaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rowdʰós < *h₁rewdʰ-.

Germanic cognates: Old Frisian rād (West Frisian read), Old Saxon rōd (Low German root, rod), Dutch rood, Old High German rōt (German rot), Old Norse rauðr (Danish rød, Swedish röd, Icelandic rauður), Gothic 𐍂𐌰𐌿𐌸𐍃 (rauþs).

Indo-European cognates: Ancient Greek ἐρυθρός (eruthrós), Latin ruber, Old Irish rúad, Lithuanian raũdas, Russian рудо́й (rudój).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ræ͜ɑːd/

Adjective

rēad

1. red
   • The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

   • Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church

Declension

Derived terms

• blēorēad
• ġeolurēad
• rēadnes
• weolocrēad

Descendants

• Middle English: red, redde, reed, read, ræd
  • English: red
  • Scots: rede, reid
  • Yola: reed

See also

Swedish

Participle

read

1. past participle of rea

Anagrams

• edra, reda

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian rād.

Adjective

read

1. red

Inflection

Derived terms

• reahart

See also

Further reading

• “read”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011