reading

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

• noun The act or activity of one that reads.
• noun The act or practice of rendering aloud written or printed matter.
• noun An official or public recitation of written material.
• noun The specific form of a particular passage in a text.
• noun The distinctive interpretation of a work of performing art given by the person or persons performing it.
• noun An interpretation or appraisal.
• noun Written or printed material.
• noun The information indicated by a gauge or graduated instrument.

from The Century Dictionary.

• Inclined to read; having a taste for reading; of a studious disposition: as, a reading community.
• noun The act of interpreting; interpretation; exposition, as of a riddle or dream; interpretation of signs, marks, or the like; a rendering or discovery of what is signified by the state or marking of an instrument, by arbitrary signs of any kind, or by the existing condition or action of anything: as, the readings of a steam-indicator; a correct reading of the sky (as to weather), or of a person's countenance or proceedings.
• noun The particular interpretation given to a composition of any kind, an event or a series of events, etc.; also, a rendering in speech, act, or performance; delineation; representation.
• noun The act of perusing that which is written or printed; perusal.
• noun The utterance or recital of recorded words, either from the record (as a printed page) or from memory; specifically, a public lection or lecture: as, to give readings from the poets, or upon law or philosophy. See read, intransitive verb, 6.
• noun That which is read or to be read; any written or printed medium of thought or intelligence; recorded matter or material.
• noun The indication of a graduated instrument: as, the reading of a barometer.
• noun Textual structure or construction; a form, expression, or collocation in a writing, or in a particular copy or impression of it; a version: as, the various readings of a passage in Shakspere; the reading seems to be corrupt.

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

• adjective Of or pertaining to the act of reading; used in reading.
• adjective Addicted to reading.
• adjective a book for teaching reading; a reader.
• adjective a desk to support a book while reading; esp., a desk used while reading the service in a church.
• adjective a large lens with more or less magnifying power, attached to a handle, and used in reading, etc.
• adjective one who reads much; hence, in the English universities, a close, industrious student.
• adjective a room appropriated to reading; a room provided with papers, periodicals, and the like, to which persons resort.
• noun The act of one who reads; perusal; also, printed or written matter to be read.
• noun Study of books; literary scholarship.
• noun A lecture or prelection; public recital.
• noun The way in which anything reads; force of a word or passage presented by a documentary authority; lection; version.
• noun Cant Manner of reciting, or acting a part, on the stage; way of rendering.
• noun An observation read from the scale of a graduated instrument.
• noun (Legislation) its formal recital, by the proper officer, before the House which is to consider it.

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

• verb Present participle of read.
• noun The process of interpreting written language.
• noun The process of interpreting a symbol, a sign or a measuring device.
• noun A value indicated by a measuring device.
• noun A meeting where written material is read aloud.
• noun An interpretation.

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

• noun a public instance of reciting or repeating (from memory) something prepared in advance
• noun written material intended to be read
• noun a datum about some physical state that is presented to a user by a meter or similar instrument
• noun a mental representation of the meaning or significance of something
• noun the cognitive process of understanding a written linguistic message
• noun a city on the River Thames in Berkshire in southern England
• noun a particular interpretation or performance
• noun the act of measuring with meters or similar instruments