reply
Syllables: re·ply/ɹɪˈplaɪ/
reply verb: to give a written or spoken response, especially to a question, request, accusation or criticism; to answer.
Verb
reply (third-person singular simple present replies, present participle replying, simple past and past participle replied)
- To give a written or spoken response, especially to a question, request, accusation or criticism; to answer.
- (intransitive) Please reply to my letter.
- (transitive) "Sorry I'm late," replied the student.
- To act or gesture in response.
- Joanne replied to Pete's insult with a slap to his face.
- It is a sound to be dreaded until you ascertain that it is being made by friendly forces; even then, your welcome to it must be tempered with some caution, because gunfire usually leads to replying gunfire[…]1988, Emmanuel Doe Ziorklui, Ghana: Nkrumah to Rawlings
- To repeat something back; to echo.
Noun
reply (plural replies)
- A written or spoken response; part of a conversation.
- For example, it is said that someone at a party once asked the famous philosopher Ly Tin Weedle ‘Why are you here?’ And the reply took three years.1986, Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic, published 2022, page 12
- Something given in reply.
- A counterattack.
- The answer of a figure.
- A document written by a party specifically replying to a responsive declaration and in some cases an answer.
reply meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
reply in Hindi
- to give a written or spoken response
- जवाब javāb, जवाब देना javāb denā, उत्तर देना uttar denā
- written or spoken response
- जवाब javāb, उत्तर uttar
reply in Tamil
- to give a written or spoken response
- பதில் சொல் patil col
reply in Urdu
- to give a written or spoken response
- جواب دینا javāb denā
- written or spoken response
- جَواب javāb
reply in Bengali
- to give a written or spoken response
- জবাব দেওয়া jobab deōẇa, উত্তর দেওয়া uttor deōẇa
- written or spoken response
- জবাব jobab, উত্তর uttor
More languagesFewer languages
- reply in Telugu
- బదులిచ్చు baduliccu, జవాబు javābu, బదులు badulu, ప్రత్యుత్తరము pratyuttaramu
- reply in Malayalam
- മറുപടി നൽകുക maṟupaṭi nalkuka, പ്രതികരിക്കുക pratikarikkuka, മറുപടി maṟupaṭi, പ്രതികരണം pratikaraṇaṁ
- reply in Kannada
- ಮರುಮಾತು, ಮಾರ್ನುಡಿ, ಮಾರೋಲೆ, ಉತ್ತರ
- reply in Gujarati
- ઉત્તર uttar
- reply in Odia
- ଉତ୍ତର uttara
- reply in Sanskrit
- वाद vāda
- reply in Nepali
- जवाफ दिन
- reply in Pashto
- ځواب źwāb
- reply in Tagalog
- sagot, buwelta
- reply in Arabic
- أَجَابَ ʔajāba, رَدَّ radda, إِجَابَة ʔijāba, جَوَاب jawāb
- reply in Indonesian
- jawab
- reply in Persian
- جواب دادن javâb dâdan, پاسخانیدن pâsoxânidan
- reply in Thai
- คำตอบ kam-dtɔ̀ɔp
- reply in Vietnamese
- trả lời, hồi đáp, hồi âm
Examples of reply in a sentence
- She replied in the negative, with a shake of her head.
- I'll be online tonight, so I'll be able to reply to your email.
- My brother thumbed his nose in reply to my snide remarks.
Synonyms of reply
Forms of reply
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | replies |
| present participle | replying |
| past participle | replied |
| past | replied |
| Noun | |
| plural | replies |
Origin of reply
From Middle English replyen, replien, borrowed from Old French replier (“to reply”), from the Latin replicō, replicāre (“to fold back”) (in Late or Medieval Latin "to reply, repeat"), from re + plicō (“to fold”); the noun derives from the verb by nominalisation. Doublet of replicate and replica.
Words formed from reply
- autoreply
- counterreply
- misreply
- nonreplying
- replyer
- replyingly
- unrepliable
- unreplied
- unreplying
- nonreply
- auto-reply
- business reply
- international reply coupon
- refer someone to the reply given in Arkell v Pressdram
- replyallpocalypse
- reply all storm
- reply device
- reply girl
- reply guy
- reply-ping
- reply vehicle
- timestamp reply
Phrases with reply
- reply guys
- reply girls
- reply guyed
- reply guying
- reply devices
- reply vehicles
- reply all storms
- reply allpocalypse
- international reply coupons
- refers someone to the reply given in Arkell v Pressdram
- referred someone to the reply given in Arkell v Pressdram
- referring someone to the reply given in Arkell v Pressdram
Words that rhyme with reply
Questions about reply
- What does reply mean?
- Reply means to give a written or spoken response, especially to a question, request, accusation or criticism; to answer.
- What is reply in Hindi?
- Reply in Hindi is जवाब (javāb), जवाब देना (javāb denā), उत्तर देना (uttar denā). See Reply meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is reply?
- Reply can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce reply?
- Reply is pronounced /ɹɪˈplaɪ/.
- What is the past tense of reply?
- The past tense of reply is replied.
Words near reply in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: reply (page history and authors); జవాబు (Telugu) (page history and authors); reply (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ઉત્તર (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଉତ୍ତର (Odia) (page history and authors); वाद (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); reply (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-reply.ogg.
Cite this entry: “reply.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reply. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.