RSVP

PluralRSVPs

FormsRSVPs, RSVPing, RSVPed

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A reply indicating whether one will attend an event to which one has been invited.

   The host counted the RSVPs and ordered food accordingly.

   Her RSVP arrived a week before the wedding.

   Similarreply, response

   Note

   A French request that English turned into a countable thing: the letters abbreviate répondez s'il vous plaît, "please reply." In English the abbreviation became a noun for the answer itself. It takes an ordinary plural, RSVPs, so a host can count them, wait on them, or receive one late.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To respond to an invitation, indicating whether one plans to attend.

   Please RSVP by Monday so we can confirm the numbers.

   Most of the family RSVP'd within a day of the invitation.

   Similarreply, respond, answer

   Note

   Built from letters, the verb takes its endings awkwardly, and two spellings survive side by side: RSVPed and RSVP'd for the past, with RSVPing for the participle. It is intransitive. You RSVP by a date, but you do not RSVP an invitation. The letters already mean "please reply," so the familiar "please RSVP" says please twice. The French origin belongs to the noun for a reply.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To reserve a place at a restaurant or event ahead of time.

   They RSVP'd a private room for the anniversary dinner.

   Call early if you want to RSVP a good table.

   Similarreserve, book

   Note

   A booking verb that takes a direct object: one RSVPs a table, a private room, a seat. That object is the clearest way to tell it from the invitation verb, which stands alone or takes only a deadline. The inflected forms are shared, so RSVPed and RSVP'd serve both. Only the sentence shows whether someone answered a host or claimed a place.

4. 4
   phraseinitialism

   Initialism of reserve seating via phone.

   You can RSVP for the matinee right up until showtime.

   Guests who RSVP avoid waiting in line at the box office.

   Note

   A booking expansion of the same four letters: reserve seating via phone. It belongs to restaurants and events. There it sits close to replying to an invitation, since both end with a name on a list. The difference is who starts it: here the customer claims a seat, rather than answering a host who asked first.

5. 5
   nouninitialism

   Initialism of rapid serial visual presentation.

   The lab presented stimuli with RSVP to test the attentional blink.

   Reading speeds can be measured by displaying text via RSVP.

   Note

   In experimental cognition, the letters name a method rather than a message. Stimuli flash one at a time in the same spot, in quick succession, so researchers can study how attention keeps pace over time. It shares only its spelling with the reply to an invitation. The two come from different expansions, and the setting, a lab or a reading study, settles which is meant.

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