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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

teach.

To pass on knowledge to.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈtiːt͡ʃ/[ˈtʰɪi̯t͡ʃ]
  1. To pass on knowledge to.

    ditransitive
    Can you teach me to sew?  Can you teach sewing to me?
  2. To pass on knowledge generally, especially as one's profession; to act as a teacher.

    intransitive · stative
    She used to teach at university.
  3. To cause (someone) to learn or understand (something).

    ditransitive
  4. To cause to know the disagreeable consequences of some action.

    ditransitive
    I'll teach you to make fun of me!
  5. To show (someone) the way; to guide, conduct; to point, indicate.

    obsolete · transitive
    ‘The bliss is there’, mumbled the old man and taught to Heaven.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English techen, from Old English tǣċan (“to show, declare, demonstrate; teach, instruct, train; assign, prescribe, direct; warn; persuade”), from Proto-West Germanic *taikijan, from Proto-Germanic *taikijaną (“to show”), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show”). Cognate with Scots tech, teich (“to teach”), German zeigen (“to show, point out”), zeihen (“accuse, blame”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍄𐌴𐌹𐌷𐌰𐌽 (gateihan, “to announce, declare, tell, show, display”), Latin dīcō (“speak, say, tell”), Ancient Greek δείκνυμι (deíknumi, “show, point out, explain, teach”), Sanskrit दिशति (diśati, “to point out, show, tell, teach”). More at token.

noun/ˈtiːt͡ʃ/[ˈtʰɪi̯t͡ʃ]
  1. teacher

    informal · term-of-address · usually
Where this word comes from

Clipping of teacher.

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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.