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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

follow.

To go after; to pursue; to move behind in the same path or direction, especially with the intent of catching.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈfɒləʊ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfɒlə/Northumbria/ˈfɔlo/Scotland/ˈfɑloʊ/General-American, dialectal
  1. To go after; to pursue; to move behind in the same path or direction, especially with the intent of catching.

    ambitransitive
    Follow that car!
    She left the room and I followed.
  2. To go or come after in a sequence.

    ambitransitive
    B follows A in the alphabet.
    We both ordered the soup, with roast beef to follow.
  3. To carry out (orders, instructions, etc.).

    transitive
    Follow these instructions to the letter.
  4. To live one's life according to (religion, teachings, etc).

    transitive
  5. To understand, to pay attention to.

    transitive
    Do you follow me?
  6. To watch, to keep track of (reports of) some event or person.

    transitive
    I followed the incumbent throughout the election.
    My friends don't regularly follow the news.
  7. To be a supporter of (a sports team).

    transitive
  8. To subscribe to see content from an account on a social media platform.

    transitive
    If you want to see more of our articles, follow us on Twitter.
  9. To be a logical consequence of something.

    ambitransitive
    It follows that if two numbers are not equal then one is larger than the other.
    If you don't practise proper hygiene, illness is sure to follow.
  10. To walk in, as a road or course; to attend upon closely, as a profession or calling.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English folwen, folȝen, folgen, from Old English folgian (“to follow, pursue”), from Proto-West Germanic *folgēn, from Proto-Germanic *fulgāną (“to follow”).

noun/ˈfɒləʊ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfɒlə/Northumbria/ˈfɔlo/Scotland/ˈfɑloʊ/General-American, dialectal
  1. In billiards and similar games, a stroke causing a ball to follow another ball after hitting it.

    attributive · sometimes
    a follow shot
  2. The act of following another user's online activity.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English folwen, folȝen, folgen, from Old English folgian (“to follow, pursue”), from Proto-West Germanic *folgēn, from Proto-Germanic *fulgāną (“to follow”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.