reader
Syllables: read·erUK/ˈɹiː.də//ˈɹi.dɚ/
reader noun: a person who reads.
Noun (1)
reader (plural readers)
- A person who reads.
- an early reader, a talented reader
- A person who reads a publication.
- 10,000 weekly readers
- In its May 1965 issue, Life magazine condemned skateboards as a “menace to limb and even to life,” and cautioned readers about riders who “take over the paths made for peaceful strollers.”2018 July 13, Jaime Marie Davis, “How photographers have captured skateboarding through generations”, in CNN, archived from the original on 18 Mar 2025
- A person who recites literary works, usually to an audience.
- A proofreader.
- Synonyms:
- proofreader, printer's reader
- A person employed by a publisher to read works submitted for publication and determine their merits.
- They were dog-eared by the hands of many a publisher's-reader and postman.1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter VIII, in Capricornia, page 123
- Synonyms:
- publisher's reader, first reader
- A position attached to aristocracy, or to the wealthy, with the task of reading aloud, often in a foreign language.
- "I am commissioned by the Queen to offer you the place of Italian reader; and I assure you the offer was made with many kind expressions of interest. You will enter upon the duties, which are almost nominal, immediately."1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 83–84
- A university lecturer ranking below a professor.
- Any device that reads something.
- a card reader, a microfilm reader
- The reMarkable PDF reader is really targeted at the digital writing market, rather than the digital reading market, though most serious e-readers support pens for annotations and signatures.2019 June 27, Jack Schofield, “What’s the best cheap tablet or e-reader for PDF files?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 27 Apr 2023
- A book of exercises to accompany a textbook.
- An elementary textbook for those learning to read, in a native language or a foreign language.
- Appletons’ School Readers
- [Editor David W. Blight said:] In 1795, after producing his own geography textbook, modeled on Jedidiah Morse’s famous Geography (1784), Bingham resigned as a teacher in the Boston schools, opened a bookstore on Cornhill Street in Boston, and devoted himself to producing schoolbooks. In Boston in...1997 [1797], David W. Blight, “Editor's Introduction: The Peculiar Dialogue Between Caleb Bingham and Frederick Douglass”, in Caleb Bingham, edited by David W. Blight, The Columbian Orator...
- A literary anthology.
- A good bedtime reader should entertain and delight, and that's what I find in Girard Kent's The Boy Harleqin ^([sic]) and Other Stories.1981 December 1, Thomas Hopkinson, “Streetboy Dreams; The Boy Harlequin and Other Stories (review)”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 20, page 10
- A lay or minor cleric who reads lessons in a church service.
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- A newspaper advertisement designed to look like a news article rather than a commercial solicitation.
- Synonyms:
- reading notice
- Reading glasses.
- Marked playing cards used by cheaters.
- LUMINOUS READERS—Marked cards that can be read only through tinted glasses.1961, United States. Congress. Senate. Government Operations, Gambling and Organized Crime, Parts 1, 2, 3. 87-1, page 286
- Of the 150,000,000 decks of cards sold each year in America, Scarne estimates that 1 percent get marked at some point. Yet, as he discovered in his 1972 gambling survey, only 2 percent of average players have any idea of how to detect these "readers."1991, John Bowyer Bell, Barton Whaley, Cheating and Deception, page 185
- A wallet or pocketbook.
- […] Q was a Queer-screen, that served as a blind; / R was a Reader, with flimsies well lined; […]1846, George William MacArthur Reynolds, The Mysteries of London, page 60
- At Eton College, a lesson for which pupils are sent back to their separate school houses.
Noun (2) capitalized: Reader
Reader (plural Readers)
- Alternative form of reader (“a lay or minor cleric who reads lessons in a church service”).
Proper noun capitalized: Reader
Reader
- A surname
- A census-designated place in Nevada County and Ouachita County, Arkansas, United States.
- An unincorporated community in Western Mound Township, Macoupin County, Illinois, United States.
- A census-designated place in Wetzel County, West Virginia, United States, named after the Reader Run creek.
reader meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
reader in Hindi
- person who reads a publication
- पाठक pāṭhak, पाठिका pāṭhikā, रीडर rīḍar
reader in Tamil
- வாசகர், வாசகன், வாசிப்பாளர்
reader in Marathi
- person who reads a publication
- वाचक vācak, वाचणारा vācṇārā, वाचणारी vācṇārī
reader in Urdu
- person who reads a publication
- قاری qārī, رِیڈَر rīḍar
More languagesFewer languages
- reader in Bengali
- পাঠক paṭhok
- reader in Telugu
- పాఠకుడు
- reader in Malayalam
- വായനക്കാരൻ
- reader in Kannada
- ಓದುಗ
- reader in Punjabi
- ਪਾਠਕ
- reader in Gujarati
- વાંચનાર vā̃cnār
- reader in Odia
- ପାଠକ
- reader in Nepali
- पाठक
- reader in Pashto
- لوستونکى lwəstúnkay, قاري qārí
- reader in Tagalog
- basahan, mambabasa
- reader in Arabic
- قَارِئ qāriʔ, قَارِئَة qāriʔa
- reader in Malay
- pembaca
- reader in Indonesian
- pembaca, alat baca
- reader in Thai
- ผู้อ่าน pûu-àan
- reader in Vietnamese
- độc bản
- reader in Myanmar
- ဖတ်သူ hpatsu, ဖတ်စာ hpatca
Examples of reader in a sentence
- A quick search on Kaiser's website, there was nothing that talked about plate readers or a usage policy.2023 December 1, Da Lin, “Privacy advocates accuse Kaiser of not following state law on license plate readers”, in CBS News, archived from...
- The Columbian Orator was an elocution manual as well as a reader for school children in the new republic.1997 [1797], David W. Blight, “Editor's Introduction: The Peculiar Dialogue Between Caleb Bingham and Frederick Douglass”, in Caleb...
Synonyms of reader
Antonyms
Forms of reader
| plural | readers |
|---|---|
| plural | Readers |
Origin of reader
From Middle English reder, redar, redere, redare, from Old English rēdere, rǣdere (“a reader; scholar; diviner”), from Proto-West Germanic *rādāri, equivalent to read + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Räider (“advisor”), Dutch rader (“advisor”), German Rater (“advisor”).
Words formed from reader
Phrases with reader
Words that rhyme with reader
Questions about reader
- What does reader mean?
- Reader means a person who reads.
- What is reader in Hindi?
- Reader in Hindi is पाठक (pāṭhak), पाठिका (pāṭhikā), रीडर (rīḍar). See Reader meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use reader in a sentence?
- A quick search on Kaiser's website, there was nothing that talked about plate readers or a usage policy.
- What part of speech is reader?
- Reader can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce reader?
- Reader is pronounced /ˈɹi.dɚ/ (US).
- What is the plural of reader?
- The plural of reader is readers.
Words near reader in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: reader (page history and authors); Reader (page history and authors); reader (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reader (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reader (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reader (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reader (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reader (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reader (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-reader.ogg.
Cite this entry: “reader.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reader. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.