reply
Americanverb (used without object)
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to make answer in words or writing; answer; respond.
to reply to a question.
- Synonyms:
- rejoin
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to respond by some action, performance, etc..
to reply to the enemy's fire.
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to return a sound; echo; resound.
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Law. to answer a defendant's plea.
verb (used with object)
verb
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to make answer (to) in words or writing or by an action; respond
he replied with an unexpected move
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(tr; takes a clause as object) to say (something) in answer
he replied that he didn't want to come
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law to answer a defendant's plea
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to return (a sound); echo
noun
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an answer made in words or writing or through an action; response
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the answer made by a plaintiff or petitioner to a defendant's case
Related Words
See answer.
Other Word Forms
- replier noun
- unreplied adjective
- unreplying adjective
Etymology
Origin of reply
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English replien (verb), from Middle French replier “to fold back, reply,” from Latin replicāre “to unroll, fold back”; replicate
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Hong Kong police didn’t reply to a request for comment.
Joseph replied that it robbed them of strategic variability, later in the race.
From BBC
Stoppard replied, “It’s about to make me very rich,” according to Lee’s biography.
"Your opinions are your symptoms. Your disease is dissent," replies his doctor.
From BBC
When a colleague asks where he is, she anxiously replies, “Uh, he’s in a personal.”
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
