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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

return.

To come or go back (to a place or person).

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ɹɪˈtɜːn/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ɹɪˈtɝn/Canada, General-American/ɹəˈtɚːn/Ireland/ɹəˈtʊːɹn/
  1. To come or go back (to a place or person).

    intransitive
    Although the birds fly north for the summer, they return here in winter.
  2. To go back in thought, narration, or argument.

    intransitive
    To return to my story[…]
  3. To recur; to come again.

    intransitive
    Winter returns every year.
  4. To turn back, retreat.

    intransitive · obsolete
  5. To turn (something) round.

    obsolete · transitive
  6. To place or put back something where it had been.

    transitive
    Please return your hands to your lap.
    Strain the stock and return it to the pan.
  7. To give something back to its original holder or owner.

    transitive
    You should return the library book within one month.
  8. To give in requital or recompense; to requite.

  9. To reciprocate (a visit or telephone call, electronic message, etc.).

    transitive
    Hello, I’m just returning your call. What did you want to talk about?
    I wrote to my ex-wife but she won't return my emails.
  10. To take back something to a vendor for a complete or partial refund.

    transitive
    Yeah, it’s $600,000 but, if it doesn’t work, you can always return it. As long as it’s undamaged and in the original packaging, I’ll give you a full refund.
  11. To bat the ball back over the net in response to a serve.

    The player couldn’t return the serve because it was so fast.
  12. To play a card as a result of another player’s lead.

    If one players plays a trump, the others must return a trump.
  13. To throw a ball back to the wicket-keeper (or a fielder at that position) from somewhere in the field.

  14. To say in reply; to respond.

    transitive
    to return an answer;  to return thanks;  “Do it yourself!” she returned.
  15. To relinquish control to the calling procedure.

    intransitive
  16. To pass (data) back to the calling procedure.

    transitive
    This function returns the number of files in the directory.
  17. To retort; to throw back.

    dated · transitive
    to return the lie
  18. To report, or bring back and make known.

    transitive
    to return the result of an election
  19. To elect to a certain office.

    Commonwealth · broadly · dated
    he was returned as a Member of Parliament
  20. To give a thrust or cut after parrying a sword-thrust.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English returnen, retornen, from Anglo-Norman returner, from Old French retourner, retorner, from Medieval Latin retornare (“to turn back”), from re- + tornare (“to turn”). By surface analysis, re- + turn. Compare beturn. Displaced native Old English eftċierran, literally "eft-char".

noun/ɹɪˈtɜːn/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ɹɪˈtɝn/Canada, General-American/ɹəˈtɚːn/Ireland/ɹəˈtʊːɹn/
  1. The act of returning.

    countable · uncountable
    I expect the house to be spotless upon my return.
  2. A return ticket.

    countable · uncountable
    Do you want a one-way or a return?
  3. An item that is returned, e.g. due to a defect.

    countable · uncountable
  4. An answer.

    countable · uncountable
    a return to one’s question
  5. An account, or formal report, of an action performed, of a duty discharged, of facts or statistics, etc.; especially, in the plural, a set of tabulated statistics prepared for general information.

    countable · uncountable
    election returns; a return of the amount of goods produced or sold
  6. Gain or loss from an investment.

    countable · uncountable
    It yielded a return of 5%.
  7. A report of income submitted to a government for purposes of specifying exact tax payment amounts; a tax return.

    countable · uncountable
    Hand in your return within 90 days of the end of the tax year.
  8. A carriage return character.

    countable · uncountable
  9. The act of relinquishing control to the calling procedure.

    countable · uncountable
  10. A return value: the data passed back from a called procedure.

    countable · uncountable
  11. A return pipe, returning fluid to a boiler or other central plant (compare with flow pipe, which carries liquid away from a central plant).

    countable · uncountable
    The boiler technician had to cut out the heating return to access the safety valve.
  12. A roadway along which foul air travels from the face on its way out of the mine.

    countable · uncountable
  13. The act of catching a ball after a punt and running it back towards the opposing team.

    countable · uncountable
  14. A throw from a fielder to the wicket-keeper or to another fielder at the wicket.

    countable · uncountable
  15. A short perpendicular extension of a desk, usually slightly lower.

    countable · uncountable
  16. The continuation in a different direction, most often at a right angle, of a building, face of a building, or any member, such as a moulding; applied to the shorter in contradistinction to the longer.

    countable · uncountable
    A facade of sixty feet east and west has a return of twenty feet north and south.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English returnen, retornen, from Anglo-Norman returner, from Old French retourner, retorner, from Medieval Latin retornare (“to turn back”), from re- + tornare (“to turn”). By surface analysis, re- + turn. Compare beturn. Displaced native Old English eftċierran, literally "eft-char".

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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.