Replies

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈplaɪz/

Definitions

1. A response provided to a question or statement is commonly known as a reply
2. An answer returned to a query or comment can be described as a reply
3. An expression of acknowledgment or information given in response to an inquiry or remark

Etymology: "Replies" is the third-person singular present form of "reply", so it traces back to the verb "reply". That verb entered Middle English as "replyen" or "replien", borrowed from Old French "replier", meaning "to reply". Its deeper source is Latin "replicare", "to fold back", built from "re-" (back) and "plicare" (to fold). The idea behind the answer is literal: a message is folded back toward the sender, as a letter might be folded and returned. The Latin verb was already stretching beyond folding in the Late and Medieval period, when it came to mean "to reply" or "to repeat", so the sense of a returned answer was present well before English adopted the word. The noun "reply" developed later from the verb, a common pattern in English where a verb gives rise to a noun for the act or its result. "Reply" is a doublet of "replicate" and "replica", which descend from the same Latin verb through a more learned route, so all three share the original image of folding something back.

Synonyms: responses, answers, rejoinders, retorts, reactions

Antonyms: questions, inquiries, doubts, uncertainties, confusions