read
/ɹid/verb, noun
read is spelled R-E-A-D: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 347 times per million words in written English, the 263rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “read vs red” about 260 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, read means “To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in read?
| Letters | 4: R-E-A-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 347 times per million words; the 263rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is read?
Read appears 347 times per million words in written English, the 263rd 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).
How do you pronounce read?
- UK /ɹiːd/
- US /ɹid/
- /rɛːd/
As a verb: /ɹɛd/, /ɹed/.
Read has one syllable (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-uk-to_read.ogg, En-us-read.ogg, En-uk-red.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with read
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: rede, reed (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with read?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as read from its last stressed vowel (/id/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: dear, dare, rade.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of read
- reads present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- reading participle, present
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does read mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.
Have you read this book?
- 2
To be understood or physically read in a specific way.
Arabic reads right to left.
- 3
To read a work or works written by the named author.
At the moment I'm reading Milton.
- 4
To speak aloud words or other information that is written. (often construed with a to phrase or an indirect object)
He read us a passage from his new book.
- 5
To interpret, or infer a meaning, significance, thought, intention, etc., from.
She read my mind and promptly rose to get me a glass of water.
- 6
To consist of certain text.
On the door hung a sign that read "No admittance".
- 7
To substitute a corrected piece of text in place of an erroneous one; used to introduce an emendation of a text.
In Livy, it is nearly certain that for Pylleon we should read Pteleon, as this place is mentioned in connection with Antron.
- 8
Used to introduce a blunter, actually intended meaning.
Our school focuses primarily on the liberal arts (read "useless degrees").
- 9
simple past and past participle of read
noun
- 1
A reading or an act of reading, especially of an actor's part of a play or a piece of stored data.
I had a read of the evening papers.
- 2
Something to be read; a written work.
His thrillers are always a gripping read.
- 3
A person's interpretation or impression of something.
What's your read of the current political situation?
- 4
An instance of reading (“calling attention to someone's flaws; a taunt or insult”).
[As] Corey points out, "if you and I are both black queens then we can't call each other black queens because that's not a read. That's a [fact]."
- 5
The identification of a specific sequence of genes in a genome or bases in a nucleic acid string.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Read in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | lire , se lire , recevoir , étudier , lecture |
| German | lesen, läse, lesn , gelesen werden , vorlesen , lesen können |
| Portuguese | ler , ler-se , copiar , leitura, lida , dizer |
| Spanish | leer , leerse, interpretarse , lectura , decir, poner |
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 read come from?
From Middle English reden, from Old English rǣdan (“to counsel, advise, consult; interpret, read”), from Proto-West Germanic *rādan, from Proto-Germanic *rēdaną (“advise, counsel”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₁dʰ- (“to arrange”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What to look up after read
- read or red? the difference
- read or reed? the difference
- read or redd? the difference
- need rhymes with read
- agreed rhymes with read
- reactor the entry before
- readability the entry after
- English words starting with R the most written first
- Misspellings people search
- Count the syllables of any word
- Check the spelling of a text