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revise

/ɹɪˈvaɪz/verb, noun

revise is a verb meaning “To review, alter and amend, especially of written material” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-E-V-I-S-E and has 2 syllables, and it appears 3.0 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does revise mean?

verb

  1. 1

    To review, alter and amend, especially of written material.

    This statute should be revised.

  2. 2

    AustraliaUKTo look over again (something previously written or learned), especially in preparation for an examination.

    I've only just begun to revise for my exams.

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo look at again, to reflect on.

noun

  1. 1

    A review or a revision.

  2. 2

    A second proof sheet; a proof sheet taken after the first or a subsequent correction.

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

How do you pronounce revise?

  • UK /ɹɪˈvaɪz/
  • US /ɹɪˈvaɪz/
  • US /ɹəˈvaɪz/

Revise has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-revise.ogg, En-au-revise.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of revise

  • revises present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • revising participle, present
  • revised participle, past

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

How common is revise?

Revise appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,368th 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).

Revise in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchrevoir (to review, alter and amend, especially of…), réviser (to look over again)
Germanrevidieren, ändern, überarbeiten (to review, alter and amend, especially of…), wiederholen, rekapitulieren, repetieren (to look over again)
Portugueserevisar (to review, alter and amend, especially of…)
Spanishcorregir, enmendar, modificar, actualizar, emendar, subsanar (to review, alter and amend, especially of…)

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 revise come from?

Borrowed from Middle French réviser, from Latin revīsō, from re- + vīsō (“examine”), frequentative of videō (“see”).

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