refer
verb
Simple meaning
Send or direct for treatment, information, or a decision.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ruhfurSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹəˈfɝ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Send or direct for treatment, information, or a decision
transitive
To direct the attention of (someone toward something)
transitive
To submit to (another person or group) for consideration; to send or direct elsewhere.
intransitive
To mention (something); to direct attention (to something)
transitive
To place in or under by a mental or rational process; to assign to, as a class, a cause, source, a motive, reason, or ground of explanation.
intransitiveof a term or name
To have the meaning of, to denote.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Send or direct for treatment, information, or a decision
Used this way, refer is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use refer
- “Christians refer to the mother of Jesus as the Virgin Mary.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A remark that calls attention to something or someone.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Pain that is felt at a place in the body different from the injured or diseased part where the pain would be expected.
Refer from one entry to another, as in catalogues, books, and lists.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A book to which you can refer for authoritative facts.
A book to which you can refer for authoritative facts.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: send or direct for treatment or information
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.