Word Confusion: Read versus Reed

Plural for the noun: reads
Gerund: reading

Third person present verb: reads
Past tense or past participle: read
Present participle: reading

Plural for the noun: reeds
Gerund: reeding

Third person present verb: reeds
Past tense or past participle: reeded
Present participle: reeding

Take something as read, to take something for granted as a fact

• Understand
• Presume

Noun:
Usually a singular noun

• [With adjective; informal] A book considered in terms of its readability
• [Chiefly British] A period or act of reading something

Verb, intransitive:
Look at and comprehend the meaning of written or printed matter by mentally interpreting the characters or symbols of which it is composed

• Speak the written or printed matter that one is reading aloud, typically to another person
• Have the ability to look at and comprehend the meaning of written or printed matter
• Discover information by reading it in a written or printed source
• [Of a piece of writing] Convey a specified impression to the reader
• [Of a passage, text, or sign] Contain or consist of specified words
  • Have a certain wording
• [Read for; of an actor] Audition for a part in a play or film

Inspect and record the figure indicated on a measuring instrument

• [Of a measuring instrument] Indicate a specified measurement or figure

[Chiefly British] Study an academic subject at a university

Verb, transitive:
Look at and comprehend the meaning of written or printed matter by mentally interpreting the characters or symbols of which it is composed

• Speak the written or printed matter that one is reading aloud, typically to another person
• Habitually read a particular newspaper or journal
• Discover information by reading it in a written or printed source
• Discern a fact, emotion, or quality in someone’s eyes or expression
• Understand or interpret the nature or significance of:
• Used to indicate that a particular word in a text or passage is incorrect and that another should be substituted for it
• [Of a device] Obtain data from light or other input

Inspect and record the figure indicated on a measuring instrument

[Chiefly British] Study an academic subject at a university

[Of a computer] Copy, transfer, or interpret data

• Enter or extract data in an electronic storage device

Hear and understand the words of someone speaking on a radio transmitter

Composed of or for such an instrument or instruments

Noun:
A tall, slender-leaved plant of the grass family that grows in water or on marshy ground

• Used in names of plants similar to reeds, growing in wet habitats
• The tall, thin, straight stalk of a reed, used especially as material for thatching
• Reeds growing in a mass or used as material, especially for making thatch or household items
• [Literary] A rustic musical pipe made from a reed or from straw

A thing or person resembling or likened to a reed, in particular:

• A weak or impressionable person
• [Literary; archaic] An arrow
• A weaver’s comblike implement of a series of vertical parallel wires on a loom for separating the threads of the warp and correctly positioning the weft
• [Reeds] Semicylindrical adjacent moldings grouped like reeds laid together

[Music] A piece of thin cane or metal, sometimes doubled, that vibrates in a current of air to produce the sound of various musical instruments, as in the mouthpiece of a clarinet or oboe, at the base of some organ pipes, and as part of a set in the accordion and harmonica

• A wind instrument played with a reed
• An organ stop with reed pipes

An electrical contact used in a magnetically operated switch or relay

An ancient Hebrew unit of length equal to six cubits

Broken reed

Verb, transitive:
To fashion into or supply with reeds or reeding

To thatch using reeds

George is a widely read individual.

Noun:
I hate to say it, but their read on the national situation may be correct.

The book is a thoroughly entertaining read.

I was having a quiet read of the newspaper.

Verb, intransitive:
I read about the course in a magazine.

The brief note read like a cry for help.

The placard read “We want justice”.

He read for the part last week.

The thermometer read 0° C.

He went to Manchester to read for a BA in Economics.

Verb, transitive:
It’s the best novel I’ve ever read.

I never learned to read music.

Emily read over her notes.

The charges against him were read out.

His mother read him a bedtime story.

He was arrested yesterday — I read it in the paper.

She looked down, terrified that he would read fear on her face.

He didn’t dare look away, in case this was read as a sign of weakness.

For madam, read madman.

Will you read off the temperature on the calorimeter?

I’ve come to read the gas meter.

I’m reading English at Cambridge.

Their reed section is jumping.

I adore reeded glass.

Spend the day staring at coatwork, and you can develop reed blindness.

Noun:
Norfolk reed is one of the types of reeds used for thatching.

Bur reed grows in wet habitats.

I’ve just finished making a reed curtain.

There are clumps of reed and grass all over.

He plays a reed pipe.

The jurors were mere reeds in the wind.

He was as thin as a reed.

She pulled the reed through the strands of wool.

The saxophone uses reeds.

A reed pipe in an organ works through vibration.

A reed switch operates magnetically.

Verb, transitive:
We’ll be reeding Jones’ cottage next week.

Hal was reeding some flat wood panels.

Can we reed a grip onto this handle?