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revert

re·vert/ɹəˈvɜː(ɹ)t/noun, verb

revert is a noun meaning “One who, or that which, reverts” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-E-V-E-R-T and has 2 syllables (re·vert), and it appears 2.2 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of revert is reverts.

What does revert mean?

noun

  1. 1

    One who, or that which, reverts.

  2. 2

    One who reverts to that religion which one had adhered to before having converted to another.

  3. 3

    A convert to Islam.

  4. 4

    The act of reversion (of e.g. a database transaction or source control repository) to an earlier state.

    We've found that git reverts are at least an order of magnitude faster than SVN reverse merges.

  5. 5

    The skateboard maneuver of rotating the board 180 degrees or more while the wheels remain on the ground.

verb

  1. 1

    archaicTo turn back, or turn to the contrary; to reverse.

  2. 2

    To throw back; to reflect; to reverberate.

  3. 3

    To cause to return to a former condition.

  4. 4

    To reverse (a change).

  5. 5

    To reverse a change made by (a person).

  6. 6

    To return to the possession of.

    When a book goes out of print, rights revert from the publisher to the author.

  7. 7

    Of an estate: To return to its former owner, or to his or her heirs, when a grant comes to an end.

  8. 8

    To cause (a property or rights) to return to the previous owner.

    Sometimes a publisher will automatically revert rights back to an author once a book has gone out of print.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce revert?

  • /ɹəˈvɜː(ɹ)t/
  • /ɹiːˈvɜː(ɹ)t/
  • /ˈɹiːˌvɜːt/

Revert has 2 syllables, split re·vert in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-revert.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-revert2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of revert

  • reverts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • reverting participle, present
  • reverted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is revert?

Revert appears 2.2 times per million words in written English, the 18,297th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Revert in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Portugueserevertido, revertida (Islamic usage: convert to Islam), reverter (to cause to return to a former condition)
Frenchretomber, retourner, redevenir (to turn back, or to the contrary; to reverse), renvoyer, réverbérer, refléter (to throw back; to reflect; to reverberate)
Germanrückgängig machen (to turn back, or to the contrary; to reverse)
Spanishrevertir (to turn back, or to the contrary; to reverse)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does revert come from?

From Old French revertir, from Vulgar Latin *revertiō, variant of Latin revertō.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).