reply
//ɹɪˈplaɪ//
Forms
- present (v1)
- reply
- past (v2)
- replied
- past participle (v3)
- replied
- present participle
- replying
- 3rd person singular
- replies
- Plural
- replies
Definitions
1.To give a written or spoken response, especially to a question, request, accusation or criticism; to answer.
2.To act or gesture in response.
- Joanne replied to Pete's insult with a slap to his face.
3.To repeat something back; to echo.
1.A written or spoken response; part of a conversation.
- For example, it is said that someone at a party once asked the famous philosopher Ly Tin Weedle ‘Why are you here?’ And the reply took three years.
2.A counterattack.
3.The answer of a figure.
4.Something given in reply.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2361
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Uncommon
Related words
Etymology
From Middle English replyen, replien, borrowed from Old French replier (“to reply”), from the Latin replicō, replicāre (“to fold back”) (in Late or Medieval Latin "to reply, repeat"), from re + plicō (“to fold”); the noun derives from the verb by nominalisation.