pages

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of page.

   The last few pages of the manuscript were missing.

   He flipped through the pages looking for the diagram.

   Note

   One spelling carries all the noun's senses at once: the leaves of a book, the sides of those leaves, screens of text, web pages. Because page names both a leaf and one face of it, a count of pages can mean either, and context decides which. Figuratively the plural describes memorable episodes, as in the pages of history. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb, as in she pages the desk.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of page.

   The front desk pages the on-call surgeon for every trauma case.

   Whenever a server fails, the monitor pages the technician immediately.

   Note

   The -s form that a singular subject takes covers verbs from very different worlds. A clerk pages a manuscript by numbering its leaves. A reader pages through a report, turning leaf after leaf. A hospital pages a surgeon. That last use, tied to pagers, is now dated. The older American sense of simply summoning someone is obsolete, so the summons heard over a loudspeaker belongs to the device era rather than to it.

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