refer

«refer» in Mova's school dictionary: to talk or write about them — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (refer, refers, referred, referring)

meaning for a pupil

1) To refer to someone or something is to talk or write about them. tree →

2) To refer to a book, map or list is to look at it for information. tree →

3) To refer someone to another person or place is to send them there for help. tree →

4) If a word refers to something, it means or names that thing. tree →

sense in the lessons

In school, teachers say «refer to page 10» or «refer to the table». In maths, «this refers to the number of apples» explains what a letter or number stands for. In everyday life, a doctor refers a patient to a specialist. Phrases: refer to, refer back to, referred to as, refer someone to.

examples

• Please refer to the map on page 12. tree →
• When I say «the twins», I'm referring to Sam and Alex. tree →
• The doctor referred her to a hospital specialist. tree →
• In the sum, «n» refers to the number of sweets. tree →
• The Moon is sometimes referred to as Earth's satellite. tree →
• Refer back to your notes if you get stuck. tree →
• «It» in the second sentence refers to the dog. tree →
• "What men are these you refer to?" said Deirdre. tree →

note

Double the r: referred, referring. Nouns: «reference» and «referral». It is almost always followed by «to». In a word problem, asking what a pronoun or letter refers to helps you know which number goes where.

In the corpora

• Don't ever refer to it again, please.»

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «refer» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.