read someone's lips
read someone's lips verb: to discern what someone is saying by watching the shape of the mouth rather than by hearing the sounds of the words.
Verb
read someone's lips (third-person singular simple present reads someone's lips, present participle reading someone's lips, simple past and past participle read someone's lips)
- To discern what someone is saying by watching the shape of the mouth rather than by hearing the sounds of the words.
- Deaf people may be able to read people's lips, but it's not a foolproof means of communication.
- To pay close attention (often imperative).
- Read my lips. We are not going to the park today, and that is final.
Forms of read someone's lips
| third-person singular present | reads someone's lips |
|---|---|
| present participle | reading someone's lips |
| past participle | read someone's lips |
| past | read someone's lips |
Questions about read someone's lips
- What does read someone's lips mean?
- Read someone's lips means to discern what someone is saying by watching the shape of the mouth rather than by hearing the sounds of the words.
- What part of speech is read someone's lips?
- Read someone's lips is a verb.
- What is the past tense of read someone's lips?
- The past tense of read someone's lips is read someone's lips.
Words near read someone's lips in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: read someone's lips (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-read someone's lips.ogg.
Cite this entry: “read someone's lips.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/read_someone%27s_lips. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.