report

ri-PORT/ɹɪˈpoɹt/UKri-PAWT/ɹɪˈpɔːt/

Pluralreports

Verbreports, reporting, reported

15 meanings of report

Practice

1
written accountnouncountable
An account or piece of information describing certain events, given or presented to someone.
The committee published its annual report on water quality last week.
She submitted a detailed report to the board after the audit.
UsageUse on or about for the subject and by for who wrote it: a report on water quality by the committee.
Similaraccount, statement, review, summary, record
2
verbtransitive or intransitive
To tell people about something that has happened, or that one has seen, heard, or found out.
Eyewitnesses report the events differently each time they are asked.
She came back from the meeting and reported that the budget had been approved.
UsageOften report that + a clause, or report + -ing: people report feeling better. Report back means tell someone after a task.
3
cover newsverbtransitive or intransitive
To cover events as a journalist, writing or broadcasting news about them.
He reports on city politics for the morning paper.
Journalists report from the front lines despite the danger.
UsageReport on a subject, report from a place, report for a paper or station. At the end, …, the agency reported names the source.
Similarcover, write, broadcast
4
tell authoritiesverbformaltransitive
To tell the police or another authority about a crime, accident, or wrongdoing, or about the person responsible.
Employees must report safety violations to the compliance office.
He reported the suspicious transactions to federal regulators.
UsageReport a crime or a person to the police or a manager; report someone for what they did.
5
answer to bossverbintransitive
To be accountable to a more senior person in a hierarchy, taking direction from and giving updates to them.
Three department heads report to the chief executive.
The analysts reported to a regional director based overseas.
UsageUsed with to + the senior person: report to the chief executive. Report directly to means with no manager in between.
Similaranswer
6
verbtransitive
To present back the conclusion or recommendation reached after officially examining a matter that has been referred for consideration.
The select committee voted to report the bill to the chamber without amendment.
Once the inquiry concludes, the panel will report its recommendations to Parliament.
Similarsubmit, present, return
Note
Committee language from legislatures: a body that has examined a referred matter sends it back with its verdict. It may report the bill with amendments, report a new bill, or report the results of an inquiry. The object is the thing returned, not the people told, so a committee reports a bill rather than reporting on it. The usage is current in legislatures but rare outside them.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
A legislative committee reports a considered bill to the legislature with its recommendation. congress.gov
A committee may report a bill with amendments or report a new bill. house.gov
A legislative committee may report the results of an inquiry. archives.gov

Less common meanings

7
show upverbintransitive
To present oneself or appear at an appointed time and place.
All recruits report to the training base by Monday morning.
She reported for jury duty downtown last Tuesday.
UsageReport to a place or person, or report for a duty: report for work, report for jury duty.
Similarappear, arrive
8
team membernouncountable
An employee who ranks below a particular manager in a company's hierarchy and answers to that manager.
The manager scheduled one-on-ones with each direct report every other week.
As a new supervisor, she suddenly had twelve reports to support.
UsageMost often in direct report: a manager's direct reports.
Similarsubordinate
Oppositesuperior, manager
Note
Management vocabulary that turns the verb of answering upward into a noun for the person who answers: a manager's reports are the people who report to that manager. It most often appears as direct report, as in the Financial Times piece 'The meltdown at Nestlé' (2025). Subordinate is the plainer synonym; report keeps to the language of the org chart.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
The Financial Times published a piece titled “The meltdown at Nestlé” in 2025. en.wiktionary.org
The cited piece uses “direct report” for an employee. swissinfo.ch
9
bangnouncountable
The sharp, loud sound produced by a gun firing or an explosion.
The sharp report of the hunting rifle startled the birds into flight.
A single report rang out, followed by silence.
UsageUsually the report of a gun or rifle, or a loud report.
Similarbang, crack, blast, boom, shot
Note
The gun's sound rather than its story: the crack of a shot, paired with the flash in Stevenson's Treasure Island ('flash and report'). Its absence can carry a scene, as in Ambrose Bierce's 'There was no report' when the last cartridge is gone. Melville stretches it in Moby-Dick to harpooneers chewing so loudly 'there was a report to it'.
10
school gradesnounUKcountablebritish
A school's written evaluation of a pupil's progress, marks and conduct, issued to parents at regular points in the school year.
His report praised his progress in French but noted that his homework was often late.
Pupils take their reports home on the last day of term, and some hand them over more willingly than others.
UsageIn the US the same document is a report card. Often a school report or an end-of-term report.
Note
Words like pupil, term and marks around it are what set it apart from a news report or a police report.
11
write down speechverbtransitive
To write down a speech or the proceedings of a public body, taking the words down as a speaker delivers them.
Court stenographers report each witness's testimony as it is spoken.
She was hired to report the debates of the assembly word for word.
Similartranscribe, record
12
reputationnounliterary
The general opinion or esteem in which someone or something is held; reputation.
I love thee in such sort / As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report.
1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 36”
Certain it is that if he had been daft before, he now ran wild in his pranks, and an evil report of him was in every mouth.
1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
UsageUsually with a judging adjective: of good report, an evil report of someone.
Similarreputation, repute, standing, name
Note
Shakespeare's Sonnet 36 (1609) speaks of 'thy good report', and John Buchan's The Outgoing of the Tide (1902) of 'an evil report of him'. On its own, readers will take report as an account of events, so the adjective is what keeps this meaning clear.
13
verbobsoletereflexive
To turn to a person or source for guidance or support; to appeal for help.
Note
A reflexive use that has dropped out of English: one reported oneself to God, or to people who could vouch for one, to seek support or a ruling. It still appears in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur (1485). A modern reader meeting 'reported himself to the bishop' will hear the "present oneself" meaning instead. In older texts, ask whether the person is appealing for support rather than simply turning up.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Report historically had a reflexive sense meaning to appeal for guidance or support. en.wiktionary.org
Sir Thomas Malory wrote Le Morte Darthur, first published in 1485. en.wikipedia.org
The historical reflexive use occurs in Le Morte Darthur. gutenberg.org
14
verbobsolete
To direct or refer a matter or person to some source or authority for an answer.
Note
An older way of sending someone elsewhere for information. Thomas Fuller, writing in 1639 that Baldwin IV was so like his father, says 'we report the reader to the character of King Almerick' rather than repeat the description. A modern writer would say refer. Readers of seventeenth-century prose should translate it that way, because today the line would sound like a complaint against the reader.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Thomas Fuller's The Historie of the Holy Warre was published in 1639. en.wikipedia.org
Fuller describes Baldwin IV as resembling his father and refers readers to King Almerick's character instead of repeating the description; the quoted words are accurate. en.wiktionary.org
15
verbobsoletetransitive or intransitive
To return or echo a sound; to send back a noise as a reverberation.
Note
The sense closest to the root. Latin reportāre, 'to carry back', from re- and portāre, came through Anglo-Norman into Middle English, and an echo is sound carried back. Francis Bacon writes of a church that 'reporteth the voice twelve or thirteen times' (1627). The noise sense that survives is the crack of a gun.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of report apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Latin reportāre ("to carry back, return, refer"), a compound of re- and portāre ("to carry"), passed through Anglo-Norman reporter into Middle English reporten.