# page

Pronunciation: say "PAYJ" /peɪd͡ʒ/

## Noun

1. One side of a sheet of paper in a book, magazine, or other document, or the whole sheet.
   - Simple: One side of a sheet of paper in a book or magazine, or the whole sheet.
   - _The editor flagged a typo halfway down the page._
   - _In this edition, each page holds roughly forty lines of text._
2. A single document on the World Wide Web, viewed through a browser.
   - Simple: A single document you can view on a website.
   - _The company's contact page lists three different phone numbers._
   - _She updated the page after spotting a broken link._
3. A screenful of text and other content, especially a digital version that imitates one side of a paper sheet.
   - Simple: A screen's worth of text or other content that you read or scroll through.
   - _The reading app splits the file into pages sized to the screen._
   - _The reading app imitates a real book, so a quick swipe across the screen turns to the next page._
5. A noteworthy event or episode remembered as part of a larger collective history.
   - Simple: An important event remembered as part of a shared story or history.
   - _Their championship win wrote a memorable page in the team's long history._
   - _For the older villagers, the great flood remains a painful page in their shared history._
6. A boy or youth employed to attend a person of rank or to run errands and answer the door in a large household.
   - Simple: In the past, a boy who served an important person or worked in a big house running errands.
   - _The earl took the boy on as a page to school him in courtly manners._
   - _Pages waited at the high table throughout the long banquet._
8. A boy or girl employed to assist and run errands for the members of a legislative body. *(Canada, US)*
   - Simple: A young person hired to run errands for members of a government law-making body.
   - _Each summer, the Senate hires teenagers to serve as pages._
   - _A page delivered the amendment to the clerk's desk before the vote._
9. A message sent to someone's pager, used to reach them or signal that they should respond.
   - Simple: A short message sent to a person's pager to get their attention.
   - _A page came through on his beeper just as the meeting ended._
   - _The on-call engineer answered every page within minutes._
11. An employee whose main job is returning checked-out or misplaced materials to their proper shelves.
   - Simple: A worker who puts returned books and other items back on the shelves.
   - _The new page reshelved every returned volume before closing time._
   - _Two pages worked steadily through the overflowing cart of returned materials._
12. A block of memory of a fixed length, made up of addresses that sit next to each other.
   - Simple: A fixed-size block of computer memory that the system treats as a single unit.
   - _The kernel swaps an unused page out to disk to free up space._
   - _Each page in the system holds four kilobytes of data._
13. The type that has been set up ready for printing a single page.
   - Simple: Metal type set out and ready to print one page.
   - _The compositor finished the page and carried it to the proofing press._
   - _One dropped page scattered hundreds of metal letters across the floor._

## Verb

4. To call someone, either over a public address system or by sending a signal to their pager, so that they respond.
   - Simple: To call for someone over a loudspeaker or with a small beeping device, so they come or reply.
   - _The receptionist paged Dr. Lewis to the emergency room._
   - _Airport staff page passengers who have not yet boarded their flight._
7. To turn through several pages of a publication, as when skimming or browsing.
   - Simple: To turn through several pages of a book or magazine, often while searching for something.
   - _The student paged through the textbook looking for the right diagram._
   - _Visitors page through the guest book before signing their names._
10. To give each page of a book, manuscript, or similar work a number or other mark.
   - Simple: To put numbers on the pages of a book or document.
14. To attend and serve someone in the role of a page.
   - Simple: To wait on someone in the role of a young attendant.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A device such as a band, pin, or snap used to hold the skirt of a woman's dress up off the ground.
- (noun) Any of several species of brightly colored South American moths of the genus Urania.
- (noun) A track along which pallets of newly molded bricks are conveyed to the hack for drying.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–3, 5, 7, 10, 12–13** — English borrowed this from Middle French "page," which came from Latin "pagina" and ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root *peh₂ǵ-. It is a doublet of "pagina."
**Meanings 4, 6, 8–9, 11, 14** — This comes from Old French "page," possibly by way of Italian "paggio," from Medieval Latin "pagius" ("servant"), probably from Ancient Greek παιδίον (paidíon, "boy, lad") and παῖς (paîs, "child"). Some sources think this unlikely and suggest instead Latin "pagus" ("countryside"), meaning a "boy from the rural regions." It has been used in English from the 13th century onwards.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/page (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).