reader

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

• noun A person who reads, especially.
• noun A person who regularly reads certain material.
• noun A person employed by a publisher to read and evaluate manuscripts.
• noun One who corrects printers' proofs; a proofreader.
• noun A teaching assistant who reads and grades examination papers.
• noun Chiefly British A university teacher, especially one ranking next below a professor.
• noun A textbook of reading exercises.
• noun An anthology, especially a literary anthology.
• noun Any of various devices that read or retrieve data from a storage device or credit card.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun One who counsels; a counselor; an adviser.
• noun One who interprets; one who acquires knowledge from observation or impression; an interpreter: as, a reader of weather-signs or of probabilities. See mind-reader.
• noun One who reads; a person who peruses, studies, or utters aloud that which is written or printed.
• noun Specifically— One who reads for examination or criticism; an examiner of that which is offered or proposed for publication: as, an editorial or a publisher's reader.
• noun One who is employed to read for correction for the press; a proof-reader.
• noun One who recites before an audience anything written: as, an elocutionary reader. Particularly
• noun One whose office it is to read before an audience; an officer appointed to read for a particular purpose; a lector; a lecturer.
• noun In the early church, the Greek Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and some other churches, a member of one of the minor clerical orders, appointed to read Scripture lections in the church. The order of reader existed as early as the second century. At an early date it was not unusual to admit young boys, even of five or six, to the office of reader, but by the sixth century the age of eighteen was required by law. In the Roman Catholic Church this order is little more than one of the steps to the priesthood. The reader (lector) ranks above a doorkeeper and below an exorcist, and the form of ordination is the delivery to him of the book from which he is to read. In the Greek church the reader (anagnost) ranks below a subdeacon, and it is his office, as it was in the early church, to read the Epistle, the deacon reading the Gospel. In the Church of England the order fell into abeyance after the Reformation, but lay readers were frequently licensed, especially in churches or chapels without a clergyman. They could not minister the sacraments and other rites of the church, except the burial of the dead and the churching of women, nor pronounce the absolution and benediction. Of late years, however, bishops have regularly admitted candidates to the office of reader by delivery of a copy of the New Testament. In the American Episcopal Church lay readers conduct services in vaeant churches or under a rector by his request with license from the bishop for a definite period (a year or less). They cannot give absolution or benediction, administer sacraments, nor use the occasional offices of the church except those for the burial of the dead and visitation of the sick and prisoners, nor deliver sermons of their own composition.
• noun One who reads the law in a Jewish synagogue.
• noun In the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the English Inns of Court, etc., a lecturer, or, where there are two grades of lecturers, a lecturer of the higher grade, the others being called sublectors or lecturers.
• noun A reading-book for schools; a book containing exercises in reading.

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

• noun One who reads.
• noun One whose distinctive office is to read prayers in a church.
• noun (University of Oxford, Eng.) One who reads lectures on scientific subjects.
• noun A proof reader.
• noun One who reads manuscripts offered for publication and advises regarding their merit.
• noun One who reads much; one who is studious.
• noun A book containing a selection of extracts for exercises in reading; an elementary book for practice in a language; a reading book.

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

• noun A person who reads a publication.
• noun A person who recites literary works, usually to an audience.
• noun A proofreader.
• noun chiefly UK A university lecturer below a professor.
• noun Any device that reads something.
• noun A book of exercises to accompany a textbook.
• noun A literary anthology.
• noun A lay or minor cleric who reads lessons in a church service.
• noun A newspaper advertisement designed to look like an news article rather than a commercial solicitation.

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

• noun someone who reads proof in order to find errors and mark corrections
• noun someone who reads the lessons in a church service; someone ordained in a minor order of the Roman Catholic Church
• noun someone who contracts to receive and pay for a service or a certain number of issues of a publication
• noun a person who can read; a literate person
• noun someone who reads manuscripts and judges their suitability for publication
• noun a person who enjoys reading
• noun a public lecturer at certain universities
• noun one of a series of texts for students learning to read