Read

Part of speech: verb, noun

Pronunciation: /ɹiːd/

Definitions

1. To interpret and comprehend letters or symbols in text ; to study or examine written or printed material carefully ; to find out or understand information from a source
2. The act of recognizing and understanding text characters ; the process of looking at and considering written content attentively ; the action of gaining knowledge or meaning from data or signs
3. To convert written marks into words for meaning ; to review or analyze written documents or messages ; to identify or grasp facts or ideas from various sources

Etymology: The verb "read" once meant something closer to "advise" or "guess" than to "look at words." Its ancestor, Proto-Germanic "rēdaną," meant "advise, counsel," and the same root survives today in German "raten" (to advise, or to guess) and Dutch "raden." Over time, the verb in Old English, "rǣdan," took on the sense "interpret," and that is the step that matters most here: to interpret a sign or a riddle was to make sense of it, and in England that sense narrowed to interpreting written letters. The modern meaning, then, grew out of interpretation rather than out of looking. Scots kept a closer link to the older sense, using "rede" to mean "to advise, counsel, decipher," which shows how the same root branched in different directions across the Germanic languages.

Synonyms: peruse, scan, study, review, interpret

Antonyms: ignore, neglect, overlook