From Middle English reder, redar, redere, redare, from Old English rēdere, rǣdere, from Proto-West Germanic *rādāri, equivalent to read + -er.

• (America) IPA: /ˈɹidɚ/
• (RP) IPA: /ˈɹiːdə/

reader (plural readers)

1. A person who reads.

   an early reader, a talented reader

2. A person who reads a publication.

   10,000 weekly readers

3. A person who recites literary works, usually to an audience.
4. A proofreader.

   Synonyms: proofreader, printer's reader

5. A person employed by a publisher to read works submitted for publication and determine their merits.

   Synonyms: publisher's reader, first reader

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter VIII, in Capricornia‎, page 123:

     They were dog-eared by the hands of many a publisher's-reader and postman.

6. A position attached to aristocracy, or to the wealthy, with the task of reading aloud, often in a foreign language.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC ↗, pages 83–84 ↗:

     "I am commissioned by the Queen to offer you the place of Italian reader; and I assure you the offer was made with many kind expressions of interest. You will enter upon the duties, which are almost nominal, immediately."

7. (chiefly, British) A university lecturer ranking below a professor.
8. Any device that reads something.

   a card reader, a microfilm reader

9. A book of exercises to accompany a textbook.
10. An elementary textbook for those learning to read, especially for foreign languages.

    Appletons’ School Readers

11. A literary anthology.
12. A lay or minor cleric who reads lessons in a church service.
13. (advertising) A newspaper advertisement designed to look like a news article rather than a commercial solicitation.

    Synonyms: reading notice

14. (in the plural) Reading glasses.
15. (slang, gambling, in the plural) Marked playing cards used by cheaters.
    • 1991, John Bowyer Bell, Barton Whaley, Cheating and Deception, page 185:

      Of the 150,000,000 decks of cards sold each year in America, Scarne estimates that 1 percent get marked at some point. Yet, as he discovered in his 1972 gambling survey, only 2 percent of average players have any idea of how to detect these "readers."

16. (obsolete, slang) A wallet or pocketbook.
    • 1846, George William MacArthur Reynolds, The Mysteries of London, page 60:

      […] Q was a Queer-screen, that served as a blind; / R was a Reader, with flimsies well lined; […]

• French: lecteur, lectrice
• German: Leser, Leserin
• Italian: lettore, lettrice
• Portuguese: leitor, leitora
• Russian: чита́тель
• Spanish: lector, lectora

• German: Vorleser, Vorleserin
• Portuguese: leitor, leitora
• Russian: чтец
• Spanish: lector, lectora

• German: Verlagslektor, Lektor
• Russian: реда́ктор

• German: Lesegerät
• Portuguese: leitor
• Russian: счи́тыватель
• Spanish: lector

• German: Übungsbuch, Übungsheft, Reader

• German: Lesebuch
• Russian: хрестома́тия

• German: Anthologie, Blütenlese
• Portuguese: antologia
• Russian: антоло́гия

reader (plural readers)

1. (religion) A person who is not ordained but is appointed to lead most services in the Anglican Church

1. Surname
2. CDP in Nevada County, and.
3. An unincorporated community in Western Mound, Macoupin County.
4. CDP in Wetzel County, West Virginia, named after the Reader Run creek.