lector
/ˈlɛktə(ɹ)/
lector noun: a lay person who reads aloud certain religious texts in a church service.
Noun
lector (plural lectors)
- A lay person who reads aloud certain religious texts in a church service.
- A public lecturer or reader at some universities.
- A person who reads aloud to workers to entertain them, appointed by a trade union.
- Its lyrical, poetic flights seem much more at home in the romantic musings of two sisters competing for the attention of the new, handsome lector, a man hired to read stories to workers in a Florida cigar factory, who might otherwise be mesmerized by the repetitive boredom of their jobs.2004 October 27, D. J. R. Bruckner, “New Inflections and Nuance in a Florida Cigar Factory”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
- A person doing voice-over translation of foreign films, especially in Eastern European countries.
- The Hungarian viewer of The Colbert Report wants to experience authentic American comedy, and the lector—like an interpreter performing chuchotage at a high-level meeting of heads of state—serves primarily as a check on the viewer's grasp of the real thing.2011, David Bellos, chapter 12, in Is that a Fish in Your Ear?
Verb
lector (third-person singular simple present lectors, present participle lectoring, simple past and past participle lectored)
- To perform service as a lector in a religious context.
- To do a voice-over translation of a film.
- How much of Colbert's political satire can be truly grasped by a Hungarian viewer of a lectored episode is slightly beside the point: something gets through.2011, David Bellos, chapter 12, in Is that a Fish in Your Ear?
lector meaning in Indonesian and Vietnamese
lector in Indonesian
- lay person who reads aloud certain religious texts
- lektor
lector in Vietnamese
- lay person who reads aloud certain religious texts
- người đọc kinh, thầy đọc kinh, thầy đọc sách, thừa tác viên Lời Chúa
Forms of lector
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | lectors |
| alternative form (obsolete) | lectour |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | lectors |
| present participle | lectoring |
| past participle | lectored |
| past | lectored |
Origin of lector
From Middle English lector, lectoure, lectour, from Late Latin lēctor, from legō (“to read”). “Voice-over” sense probably adapted from Polish lektor. Doublet of lecture and lecturer.
Words formed from lector
Questions about lector
- What does lector mean?
- Lector means a lay person who reads aloud certain religious texts in a church service.
- What is lector in Indonesian?
- Lector in Indonesian is lektor. See Lector meaning in Indonesian.
- What part of speech is lector?
- Lector can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce lector?
- Lector is pronounced /ˈlɛktə(ɹ)/.
- What is the plural of lector?
- The plural of lector is lectors.
Words near lector in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lector (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lector.wav.
Cite this entry: “lector.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lector. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.