reading

noun read·ing \ ˈrē-diŋ \

|Updated on: 14 Jun 2018

Examples: reading in a Sentence

1 : the act of reading

2 a : material read or for reading

b : extent of material read

3 a : a particular version

b : data indicated by an instrument

4 a : a particular interpretation of something (such as a law)

b : a particular performance of something (such as a musical work)

5 : an indication of a certain state of affairs

a study to get some reading of shoppers' preferences

See reading defined for English-language learners

See reading defined for kids

Examples of reading in a Sentence

The family attended the reading of her will.
The speech ended with a reading from his latest novel.
After several readings, I finally understood the meaning of the poem.
He needs help in reading.
The teacher gave us a list of books for further reading on the subject.
He has done a lot of reading on this subject.
The reading for today is about human cloning.
Moby-Dick is required reading for any scholar of 19th-century American literature.
The pastor selected a reading for tonight's service.

Recent Examples of reading from the Web

One of the underrated things about being an adult is that there’s no such thing as required summer reading—no Beowulf, no The Catcher in the Rye, and no Great Gatsby to read and be ready to discuss in September.

— elaheh nozari, Bon Appetit, "8 Non-Cookbook Food Books to Read This Summer," 11 June 2018
Two technicians sat at a bank of screens, pumping electricity into a battery in the adjacent cinder block room and watching temperature readings rise as the battery’s charge reached double what it was designed to hold.

— rye druzin, San Antonio Express-News, "San Antonio R&D center gets new car battery testing facility," 9 June 2018
The piles were split up into different reading levels and topics.

— sandra gomez-aceves, courant.com, "Students, Teachers Get To Pick From 45,000 Free Books At Hartford Event," 9 June 2018
Finally, Beth Marshall Presents will offer two play readings on Saturday, June 23, in its New Works Series.

— matthew j. palm, OrlandoSentinel.com, "June theater: Breakthrough, Mad Cow, Theater on the Edge, Beth Marshall Presents," 9 June 2018
People will still ask autobiographical questions of female authors in interviews and at readings.

— mary carole mccauley, baltimoresun.com, "'Fates and Furies' author Lauren Groff comes to Baltimore to read from her new short story collection," 8 June 2018
The live reading became an exuberant celebration of life.

— bill brownlee, kansascity, "David Byrne's utopic show at Kauffman Center had everyone dancing," 8 June 2018
But GitHub also hosts content that the country's government would rather censor, like readings related to the 1989 student-lead protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

— louise matsakis, WIRED, "How Will Microsoft Handle GitHub's Controversial Code?," 5 June 2018
Plus, Trump’s been sending other signals to Manafort that don’t require much reading between the lines.

— margaret hartmann, Daily Intelligencer, "If Mueller Is Ever Going to Flip Manafort, Now Seems Like the Time," 5 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'reading.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.