reader
Pluralreaders
- 1A person who reads.
She grew into a voracious reader by the age of ten.
Skilled readers move their eyes ahead of the words they speak.
Note
Behind the plain sense lies a wider history. Old English rǣdere meant a scholar or even a diviner, and its cousins German Rater and Dutch rader mean "advisor". The English word narrowed to someone who takes meaning from a page. It pairs readily with adjectives of habit and skill: an early reader, a talented reader, a voracious reader.
- 2A person who reads a particular publication, such as a newspaper or magazine.
The editor thanked each reader for their loyalty over the years.
Online readers now outnumber those who buy the print edition.
- 3A device that reads data from a medium such as a card, tag, or disk.
The library installed a new card reader at the entrance.
Modern e-book readers store thousands of titles on a single device.
Similarscanner
Note
The machine sense grows by compounding: the word names what is read, then adds reader. Examples include card reader, microfilm reader and PDF reader. E-reader has closed up into a single hyphenated word for a dedicated reading device. Jack Schofield, writing in 2019, uses e-reader and PDF reader side by side, which shows how the device and the format can both supply the first element.
- 4Eyeglasses worn to see close-up text more clearly.
She slipped on her readers to check the fine print on the bottle.
A pair of bright red readers dangled from a chain around his neck.
Similarglasses, spectacles
Note
A plural-only sense, like glasses and spectacles: you wear readers, or a pair of readers, never a reader. The plural is also what tells it apart in speech. A singular reader is almost always a person or a device. The word is a casual clipping of reading glasses and sits comfortably in everyday conversation.
- 5A basic book used to teach reading, especially to learners of a foreign language.
Students worked through a Latin reader full of graded passages.
The new Spanish reader introduces grammar through short folk tales.
Similarprimer
- 6A workbook of exercises designed to go along with a particular textbook.
The course reader contained drills matching every chapter of the main text.
Teachers assigned problems from the reader to reinforce each week's grammar.
Similarworkbook
- 7A published collection of literary works, such as essays, stories, or poems.
The professor compiled a reader of essays on modern art for the seminar.
Each reader in the series gathers the best short fiction of the decade.
Similaranthology, collection, compilation
Note
Here the book is meant for pleasure rather than instruction, though it shares its name with the school reader. Thomas Hopkinson, reviewing a story collection in 1981, writes that "a good bedtime reader should entertain and delight". The word takes a qualifier for its purpose or subject: a bedtime reader, a reader of essays. Unlike the learner's textbook, it assumes the reader already reads well.
- 8
- 9A person employed by a publisher to read submitted works and judge their merits.
Every manuscript passes a reader before an editor ever sees it.
The reader recommended the debut novel for publication.
Note
The gatekeeper's title, often written in full as publisher's reader or first reader. Xavier Herbert's Capricornia (1938) hyphenates it, describing manuscripts dog-eared "by the hands of many a publisher's-reader and postman". The pairing captures the job: it is a stage in the life of a submission, handled by many and noticed by few.
- 10A person employed to read and correct proofs before they are printed; a proofreader.
The reader caught several typos in the manuscript before it went to press.
Each chapter passes through a reader who marks errors in the margins.
Similarproofreader
Note
A trade word from the printing house. Its fuller form, printer's reader, removes any doubt about which job is meant. The printer's reader works on proofs, catching errors before the type goes to press. The publisher's reader works much earlier and decides whether a manuscript should be printed at all. Where the bare word is ambiguous, the possessive tells the manuscript judge apart from this one.
- 11A university lecturer in the British system, holding a rank just below that of professor.
She was appointed Reader in Medieval History at a London university.
After years of published research, he was promoted from lecturer to reader.
Note
A title of the British academic ladder, and one that can puzzle readers used to other systems. As a formal title it is capitalized and followed by the field, as in Reader in Medieval History. In running prose it stays lowercase: promoted to reader. The rank sits just below professor, so being made a reader is a step up, not a sideways move.
- 12A lay person or minor cleric who reads the lessons aloud during a church service.
The reader stepped up to the lectern and read the first lesson.
A lay reader led the opening prayers at the morning service.
Similarlector
- 13A newspaper advertisement designed to resemble a news article rather than an obvious commercial pitch.
The reader ran on page three, fooling many subscribers into thinking it was real coverage.
Editors required a small label on every reader so it would not be mistaken for genuine reporting.
Similaradvertorial
Note
An advertising trade term, also called a reading notice. The name comes from the trick: the piece is meant to be read as news rather than skimmed past as an advertisement. It is a print ancestor of today's advertorial. The ethical problem it raises is the same one, which is why editors label such pieces. Outside the trade, the word can confuse, since the people it deceives are also called readers.
- 14A paid position in an aristocratic or wealthy household, with the duty of reading aloud, often in a foreign language.
She served as reader to an elderly countess, reciting French novels each evening.
The duke employed a reader to read Latin texts aloud after dinner.
Note
A household post usually named by its language, as in Italian reader or French reader. In Letitia Elizabeth Landon's Francesca Carrara (1834), the Queen offers a young woman "the place of Italian reader," with duties "almost nominal". That phrasing shows how the post could be as much a mark of favor as a job. Use it with the article: the place of reader, reader to the countess.
- 15Playing cards secretly marked so that a cheater can identify them during play.
He marked a reader so he could spot the high cards from across the table.
The pit boss confiscated the readers after noticing scratches on the backs.
Note
Card-room slang, used in the plural like the word for reading glasses. A US Senate committee report on Gambling and Organized Crime (1961) lists "luminous readers" as cards marked so that they can be read only through tinted glasses. The name means cards that can be read from the back. The word belongs to cheats and those who catch them, not to ordinary card players.
- 16A lesson at Eton College that requires pupils to return to their respective school houses.
He hurried back to his house for the afternoon reader.
Each reader was supervised by the house tutor rather than a central master.
- 17A wallet or pocketbook for carrying money and papers.
She found her reader empty after the long night at the tavern.
A cutpurse made off with his reader before he reached the market.
Note
Slang that has long dropped out of use. G. W. M. Reynolds's The Mysteries of London (1846) rhymes its way through an alphabet with "R was a Reader, with flimsies well lined," a wallet stuffed with paper money. If you meet it in fiction of that period, read it as something worth stealing, not someone holding a book. Today it only puzzles, so say wallet.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English reder, from Old English rēdere ("a reader; scholar; diviner"), equivalent to "read" plus "-er." It is related to Dutch rader and German Rater, both meaning "advisor."