Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The original words of something written or printed, as opposed to a paraphrase, translation, revision, or condensation.
  • noun The words of a speech appearing in print.
  • noun Words, as of a libretto, that are set to music in a composition.
  • noun Words treated as data by a computer.
  • noun The body of a printed work as distinct from headings and illustrative matter on a page or from front and back matter in a book.
  • noun One of the editions or forms of a written work.
  • noun Something, such as a literary work or other cultural product, regarded as an object of critical analysis.
  • noun A passage from the Scriptures or another authoritative source chosen for the subject of a discourse or cited for support in argument.
  • noun A passage from a written work used as the starting point of a discussion.
  • noun A subject; a topic.
  • noun A textbook.
  • intransitive verb To send a text message to.
  • intransitive verb To communicate by text message.
  • intransitive verb To key or send text messages.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A discourse or composition on which a note or commentary is written; the original words of an author, in distinction from a paraphrase or commentary.
  • noun Specifically, the letter of the Scriptures, more especially in the original languages; in a more limited sense, any passage of Scripture quoted in proof of a dogmatic position, or taken as the subject or motive of a discourse from the pulpit.
  • noun Any subject chosen to enlarge and comment on; a topic; a theme.
  • noun In vocal music, the words sung, or to be sung.
  • noun The main body of matter in a book or manuscript, in distinction from notes or other matter associated with it; by extension, letterpress or reading-matter in general, in distinction from illustrations, or from blank spaces or margins: as, an island of text in an ocean of margin.
  • noun A kind of writing used in the text or body of clerkly manuscripts; formal handwriting; now, especially, a writing or type of a form peculiar to some class of old manuscripts; specifically, in heraldry, Old English black-letter: as, German or English text; a text (black-letter) R or T.
  • To write in texthand or large characters.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To write in large characters, as in text hand.
  • noun A discourse or composition on which a note or commentary is written; the original words of an author, in distinction from a paraphrase, annotation, or commentary.
  • noun (O. Eng. Law), rare The four Gospels, by way of distinction or eminence.
  • noun A verse or passage of Scripture, especially one chosen as the subject of a sermon, or in proof of a doctrine.
  • noun Hence, anything chosen as the subject of an argument, literary composition, or the like; topic; theme.
  • noun A style of writing in large characters; text-hand also, a kind of type used in printing.
  • noun That part of a document (printed or electronic) comprising the words, especially the main body of expository words, in contrast to the illustrations, pictures, charts, tables, or other formatted material which contain graphic elements as a major component.
  • noun Any communication composed of words.
  • noun a textbook.
  • noun (Physiol.) See Word blindness, under Word.
  • noun [Obs.] a large or capital letter.
  • noun a kind of metallic pen used in engrossing, or in writing text-hand.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A writing consisting of multiple glyphs, characters, symbols or sentences.
  • noun A book, tome or other set of writings.
  • noun colloquial A brief written message transmitted between mobile phones; an SMS text message.
  • noun computing Data which can be interpreted as human-readable text (often contrasted with binary data).
  • verb transitive To send a text message to; i.e. to transmit text using the Short Message Service (SMS), or a similar service, between communications devices, particularly mobile phones.
  • verb transitive To send (a message) to someone by SMS.
  • verb intransitive To send and receive text messages.
  • verb To write in large characters, as in text hand.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the main body of a written work (as distinct from illustrations or footnotes etc.)
  • noun a book prepared for use in schools or colleges
  • noun a passage from the Bible that is used as the subject of a sermon
  • noun the words of something written

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English texte, from Old French, from Late Latin textus, written account, from Latin, structure, context, body of a passage, from past participle of texere, to weave, fabricate; see teks- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin textus, perfect passive participle of texō ("weave").

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Examples

Comments

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  • To send an SMS. Past tense texted is very clumsy.

    Something studied in a high school English class, could be a film or a comic.

    February 26, 2007

  • Why is texted clumsy? It seems perfectly fine to me, and I don't particularly like text messages.

    February 27, 2007

  • In the HSC, the bar was set even lower. Everything from a bus ticket to the works of Shakespeare was a "text" for analysis. This caused much consternation for traditionalists. Nevertheless, I am sure the "composer" of bus tickets would be grateful for all the "responders" he can get.

    December 5, 2007

  • How does one say "texted"? My feeling is that, exceptionally, it should be one syllable, with the second t silent to rhyme with "sexed". (I guess this would mean the past form would be pronounced the same as the main form, "text" - tekst.) Or do people tend to say "tex-ted"?

    December 5, 2007

  • I don't feel the need for a verb here, hence I can't suggest a pronunciation for texted as it has never sullied my lips. What I hear is almost tegs-td.

    December 5, 2007

  • I never hear it pronounced "text," rolig, at least not in the past tense. It's always "tex-ted," or even "teck-sted."

    December 6, 2007

  • Text Messages That Would Have Been Helpful. A little history humor...

    August 26, 2008

  • God Texts the Ten Commandments.

    June 5, 2009

  • Haha!

    June 5, 2009

  • Wow, this article is so intriguing and hilarious, if I wanted to cite it here I’d end up copying it whole:

    Pen Ultimate / Keep it short, twit

    (Funny, not only if you’re pin–pen merged.)

    November 5, 2009

  • I love this one from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: "n. A kind of writing used in the text or body of clerkly manuscripts; formal handwriting; now, especially, a writing or type of a form peculiar to some class of old manuscripts; specifically, in heraldry, Old English black-letter: as, German or English text; a text (black-letter) R or T."

    August 28, 2015