Define the word book

Recent Examples on the Web



The yogi was an effortlessly beautiful fortysomething woman who appeared on the covers of books and magazines and headlined her own yoga retreats.


Anna Holmes, The New Yorker, 1 Apr. 2023





No longer a niche game, it’s been played by more than 50 million people to date, according to Wizards of the Coast, the Hasbro division that owns D&D. The game has also moved beyond the tabletop to other mediums, including television, books and movies.


Teresa Nowakowski, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Mar. 2023





Aside from handing out 15 awards to TV shows, movies, musicians, books and journalists who reflected fair, accurate and inclusive representations of LGBTQ people and issues, the event also handed out three special honors to Bad Bunny, Christina Aguilera and Jeremy Pope.


Kirsten Chuba, The Hollywood Reporter, 31 Mar. 2023





Its 745 glossy pages of text are adorned with scores of images—portraits, photographs, maps and frontispieces, each illustrating the myriad books, authors, artists, architects and historical events discussed in its 32 chapters.


Barton Swaim, WSJ, 31 Mar. 2023





The Guardian | March 25, 2023 | 5,574 words In this excerpt from her book, Wavewalker: Breaking Free, Suzanne Heywood recounts the misery of her unconventional childhood.


Longreads, 31 Mar. 2023





Gwinn, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who lives in Seattle, writes about books and authors.


Mary Ann Gwinn, Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 2023





Next up, books and fashion.


The Editors, Town & Country, 30 Mar. 2023





Appraisers will be available to appraise cast iron toys, coins, pottery, china, collectables, furniture, guns, military items, antique weapons, dolls, teddy bears, engravings, art, jewelry, string instruments, books and more.


Brendel Hightower, Detroit Free Press, 30 Mar. 2023




In addition to paying for the cruise itself, travelers can add things like a cabin upgrade or pre-book onboard amenities and shore excursions through the system.


Alison Fox, Travel + Leisure, 8 Feb. 2023





Here’s the good: Officials said decades of relationship-building have allowed them to re-book critical revenue-driving conventions as early as 2022.


David Woods, The Indianapolis Star, 29 Aug. 2020





Beamed directly to the book, and beamed (via an intra-book search) to the piece of information.


Mark Changizi, Discover Magazine, 28 Oct. 2013





Entertainment Tonight shared the details of a multi-book deal worth at least $35 million.


Diego Lasarte, Quartz, 6 Jan. 2023





Of course, there will be perks for Mercedes owners—they’ll be able to pre-book charging appointments and be prioritized by the network.


Bryan Hood, Robb Report, 6 Jan. 2023





Multi-book reviews warrant much more space for overview and discussion.


Keith Kloor, Discover Magazine, 18 Mar. 2010





Global users can now pre-book rides for every leg of their journey, each of which earns 10% back in Uber Cash to spend on future travels or food delivery orders.


Matthew Humphries, PCMAG, 14 Nov. 2022





Hoping to replicate the success of Halo and its accompanying novels, Microsoft signed a multi-book deal with Tor, one of the most prominent science fiction and fantasy imprints, and brought on award-winning author Greg Rucka to helm the project.


Greg Leporati, Washington Post, 17 Aug. 2022




Go book yourself a massage—your back will need it.


Liz Kadar, ELLE Decor, 5 Apr. 2023





Shortly after the producers booked the show for a late 2020 run at the National Theater in Washington, D.C., the pandemic hit and the run was canceled.


Melinda Newman, Billboard, 3 Apr. 2023





My husband booked it during the pandemic, in April 2021.


Christine Chung, New York Times, 31 Mar. 2023





Don your favorite traction devices atop the canyon to crunch through seasonal ice and book a backcountry permit for late fall, winter, or early spring.


Emily Pennington, Condé Nast Traveler, 31 Mar. 2023





She was taken to a hospital and then booked in the Fairfax County jail on Thursday.


Olivia Diaz, Washington Post, 30 Mar. 2023





Opt to stay at one of the many beachfront resorts, like the Marriott Hilton Head Resort & Spa or the Omni Hilton Head Oceanfront Resort, or book a stay at a beloved boutique hotel, like The Inn & Club at Harbour Town. 2.


Elizabeth Rhodes, Travel + Leisure, 30 Mar. 2023





To set up your registry, simply sign up through Bloomingdale’s website or book an appointment with a registry consultant.


Kalea Martin, Peoplemag, 29 Mar. 2023





Find the perfect place, book a hotel and come up with an itinerary with your teen’s interests in mind.


Nicole Johnson, Good Housekeeping, 29 Mar. 2023



See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘book.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • enPR: bo͝ok, IPA(key): /bʊk/
  • enPR: bo͞ok IPA(key): /buːk/ (Tyneside; otherwise obsolete)[1]
  • plural
  • Rhymes: -ʊk
  • Homophone: buck (accents without the foot–⁠strut split)

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English bok, book, from Old English bōc, from Proto-West Germanic *bōk, from Proto-Germanic *bōks. Eclipsed non-native Middle English livret, lyveret (book, booklet) from Old French livret (book, booklet). Bookmaker sense by clipping.

Alternative forms[edit]

  • booke (archaic)

Noun[edit]

A hard-cover book.
The coat of arms of Oxford (like several other universities) depicts a book.

book (plural books)

  1. A collection of sheets of paper bound together to hinge at one edge, containing printed or written material, pictures, etc.
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 3, column 1:

      Knowing I lou’d my bookes, he furniſhd me / From mine owne Library, with volumes, that / I prize aboue my Dukedome.

    • 1962, James East Irby translating Luis Borges as «The Library of Babel»:
      I repeat: it suffices that a book be possible for it to exist. Only the impossible is excluded. For example: no book can be a ladder, although no doubt there are books which discuss and negate and demonstrate this possibility and others whose structure corresponds to that of a ladder.
    • 1983, Steve Horelick & al., «Reading Rainbow»:
      I can be anything.
      Take a look!
      It’s in a book:
      A reading rainbow.
    • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, page 51:
      Trefusis’s quarters could be described in one word. Books. Books and books and books. And then, just when an observer might be lured into thinking that that must be it, more books… Trefusis himself was highly dismissive of them. ‘Waste of trees,’ he had once said. ‘Stupid, ugly, clumsy, heavy things. The sooner technology comes up with a reliable alternative the better… The world is so fond of saying that books should be “treated with respect”. But when are we told that words should be treated with respect?’

    She opened the book to page 37 and began to read aloud.

    He was frustrated because he couldn’t find anything about dinosaurs in the book.

  2. A long work fit for publication, typically prose, such as a novel or textbook, and typically published as such a bound collection of sheets, but now sometimes electronically as an e-book.

    I have three copies of his first book.

    • 2022 December 6, Stephen Marche, quoting Sam Bankman-Fried, “The College Essay Is Dead”, in The Atlantic[1]:

      “I would never read a book,” he once told an interviewer. “I don’t want to say no book is ever worth reading, but I actually do believe something pretty close to that.”

  3. A major division of a long work.

    Genesis is the first book of the Bible.

    Many readers find the first book of A Tale of Two Cities to be confusing.

    Synonyms: tome, volume
  4. (gambling) A record of betting (from the use of a notebook to record what each person has bet).

    I’m running a book on who is going to win the race.

  5. (informal) A bookmaker (a person who takes bets on sporting events and similar); bookie; turf accountant.
  6. A convenient collection, in a form resembling a book, of small paper items for individual use.

    a book of stamps

    a book of raffle tickets

    Synonym: booklet
  7. (theater) The script of a musical or opera.
    Synonym: libretto
    • 2010, David Baskerville, Tim Baskerville, Music Business Handbook and Career Guide (page 172)
      The guild helps ensure that the ownership and control of the music, lyrics, and book of a show remain in the hands of its authors and composers—not the producers.
  8. (usually in the plural) Records of the accounts of a business.
    Synonyms: account, record
  9. (law, colloquial) A book award, a recognition for receiving the highest grade in a class (traditionally an actual book, but recently more likely a letter or certificate acknowledging the achievement).
  10. (whist) Six tricks taken by one side.
  11. (poker slang) Four of a kind.[2]
  12. (sports) A document, held by the referee, of the incidents happened in the game.
  13. (sports, by extension) A list of all players who have been booked (received a warning) in a game.
    • 2011 March 2, Andy Campbell, “Celtic 1 — 0 Rangers”, in BBC[2]:

      Celtic captain Scott Brown joined team-mate Majstorovic in the book and Rangers’ John Fleck was also shown a yellow card as an ill-tempered half drew to a close.

  14. (cartomancy) The twenty-sixth Lenormand card.
  15. (figurative) Any source of instruction.
  16. (with «the») The accumulated body of knowledge passed down among black pimps.
    • 1974, Adrienne Lanier Seward, The Black Pimp as a Folk Hero (page 11)
      The Book is an oral tradition of belief in The Life that has been passed down from player to player from generation to generation.
    • 1994, Antiquarian Book Monthly (volume 21, page 36)
      On the other hand The Book is an oral tradition containing the rules and principles to be adopted by a pimp who wishes to be a player.
  17. (advertising, informal) A portfolio of one’s previous work in the industry.
    • 2017, Nik Mahon, Basics Advertising 02: Art Direction (page 8)
      Getting your book (portfolio) organised is the first step, and knowing both what to include, and what to leave out, is an essential step towards achieving that important agency placement.
    • Idea Industry (page 27)
      Your portfolio — your book — has to be killer.
  18. (chess, uncountable) The sum of chess knowledge in the opening or endgame.
    • 2018 April 6, Leonard Barden, “Chess: Schoolboy Vincent Keymer secures shock triumph at Grenke Open”, in The Guardian[3], archived from the original on 2023-01-12:

      White to move and win. How can he do it? The BK plans a march to h8, eating the f4 pawn en route, for a book draw.

    • 2020, Andrew Soltis, How to Swindle in Chess, Batsford Books, →ISBN:

      This seems certain to simplify into a battle between White’s king, rook and two pawns against Black’s king and rook. In some cases a book draw is possible. But a book win is more likely.

Synonyms[edit]
  • See Thesaurus:book
Hyponyms[edit]
  • See Thesaurus:book
Derived terms[edit]
  • address book
  • audiobook
  • back of the book
  • book account
  • book agent
  • book-answerer
  • book award
  • book-bearer
  • bookbinder
  • book-board
  • book-bosomed
  • book-bound
  • book-boy
  • book-burning
  • bookcase
  • book-cloth
  • book club
  • book canvasser
  • book concern
  • book-crab
  • book-credit
  • book-debt
  • book-edge gilder
  • book-edge marbler
  • book end
  • bookend
  • bookery
  • booketeria
  • book-farmer
  • book-folder
  • book-form
  • bookful
  • book-ghoul
  • book-gill
  • book hand
  • book-holder
  • bookhood
  • bookhouse
  • book-hunt
  • bookie
  • bookish
  • bookism
  • bookjacket
  • bookkeeper
  • bookkeeping
  • book-label
  • book-lare
  • book launch
  • book-law
  • book-lear
  • book-learned
  • book-learning
  • book-length
  • bookless
  • booklet
  • booklike
  • bookling
  • booklore
  • booklouse
  • booklover
  • book lover
  • book lung
  • bookly
  • bookmaker
  • bookmaking
  • bookman
  • bookmark
  • bookmarker
  • book match
  • book-mate
  • book-mindedness
  • book mite
  • bookmobile
  • book-muslin
  • book name
  • book-number
  • book-oath
  • book of condolence
  • book of first entry
  • Book of God
  • book of lading
  • book of life
  • book of original entry
  • book of rates
  • book of reference
  • Book of the Dead
  • book of the film
  • book of the living
  • book of words
  • book-packet
  • book piles
  • bookplate
  • book pocket
  • book-post
  • book-postage
  • book-press
  • book price
  • book prop
  • book-rate
  • book-read
  • bookrest
  • bookroom
  • book-scorpion
  • bookseller
  • bookselling
  • bookshelf
  • bookshop
  • book-shy
  • booksie
  • book-slide
  • book-society
  • book-stack
  • bookstaff
  • bookstall
  • book-stamp
  • bookstand
  • bookstore
  • book support
  • booksy
  • book-table
  • book token
  • book trade
  • book-tray
  • book-trough
  • book type
  • book value
  • bookwards
  • book-ways
  • bookwise
  • bookwork
  • book-world
  • bookworm
  • book-wright
  • booky
  • bring to book
  • burn book
  • by-book
  • by the book
  • casebook
  • cashbook
  • checkbook
  • chequebook
  • cheque book
  • closed book
  • close the books
  • coffee table book
  • coffee-table book
  • comic book
  • cookbook
  • cookery book
  • cook the books
  • copybook
  • coursebook
  • e-book
  • emblem book
  • exercise book
  • forebook
  • fuck book
  • Good Book
  • guest book
  • guidebook
  • handbook
  • hold the book
  • hornbook
  • hymn book
  • in anyone’s book
  • in my book
  • in someone’s bad books
  • in someone’s good books
  • in the books
  • keep the book
  • know like a book
  • logbook
  • make book
  • matchbook
  • notebook
  • off the books
  • on the book
  • on the books
  • open book
  • passbook
  • pattern book
  • pension book
  • phrasebook
  • pocketbook
  • prayer book
  • ration book
  • read like a book
  • reading book
  • record book
  • reference book
  • rough book
  • runbook
  • scrapbook
  • sketch book
  • spellbook
  • songbook
  • storybook
  • suit one’s book
  • take a leaf out of someone’s book
  • talk like a book
  • textbook
  • throw the book at
  • visitors’ book
  • without book
  • Wizard Book
  • wordbook
  • workbook
  • yearbook
  • ABC book
  • absey book
  • absey-book
  • account book
  • activity book
  • airport book
  • alphabet book
  • American comic book
  • audio book
  • audio-book
  • autograph book
  • baby book
  • bath book
  • birthday book
  • block book
  • blot one’s copy book
  • blue book
  • blue book exam
  • board book
  • book bin
  • book burning
  • book deal
  • book debt
  • book drop
  • book dumping
  • book entry
  • book fair
  • book in
  • book it
  • book keeping
  • book knowledge
  • book learning
  • book lore
  • book muslin
  • book number
  • book of business
  • book of hours
  • book of nature
  • book of prime entry
  • book of shadows
  • book report
  • book return
  • book scorpion
  • book shop
  • book signing
  • book smart
  • book steak
  • book store
  • book tour
  • book up
  • book word
  • book worm
  • book-burner
  • book-keep
  • book-keeper
  • book-keeping
  • book-knowledge
  • book-lore
  • book-lung
  • book-ridden
  • book-signing
  • book-smart
  • book-teaching
  • book-token
  • book-wise
  • book-word
  • brag book
  • by-the-book
  • case book
  • case-book
  • chapter book
  • close the book on
  • closed-book
  • coloring book
  • colouring book
  • commonplace book
  • commonplace-book
  • composition book
  • cook book
  • cost-book
  • crack a book
  • day book
  • death book
  • don’t judge a book by its cover
  • Dutch book
  • e-book reader
  • edited book
  • electronic book
  • every trick in the book
  • fake book
  • field book
  • field-book
  • flip book
  • form book
  • friendship book
  • funny book
  • good book
  • guard book
  • guide book
  • have more chins than a Chinese phone book
  • history book
  • hymn-book
  • in one’s book
  • joke book
  • kiss the book
  • know every trick in the book
  • little black book
  • log book
  • log-book
  • look book
  • look-out book
  • mag book
  • make a book
  • mug book
  • murder book
  • never judge a book by its cover
  • note book
  • off book
  • off-book
  • open book decomposition
  • open-book
  • open-book contract
  • order book
  • out of book
  • paper book
  • phone book
  • phrase book
  • phrase-book
  • picture book
  • pocket book
  • pocket-book
  • poll book
  • rag book
  • read like an open book
  • recipe book
  • red book
  • regie-book
  • rhyme book
  • rime book
  • rip a page out of someone’s book
  • rough-book
  • rule book
  • rule-book
  • run book
  • school book
  • scrap book
  • slam book
  • song book
  • splat book
  • squawk book
  • statute book
  • sticker book
  • stroke book
  • stud book
  • stud-book
  • take a page out of someone’s book
  • talking book
  • telephone book
  • text-book
  • the oldest trick in the book
  • time-book
  • toilet book
  • trade book
  • travel book
  • turn up for the book
  • turn-up for the book
  • visitor’s book
  • why buy a book when you can join a library
  • why buy a book when you can join the library
  • winter book
  • write the book
  • yardage book
  • year-book
  • you can’t judge a book by its cover
  • you can’t tell a book by its cover
Descendants[edit]
  • Sranan Tongo: buku
  • Tok Pisin: buk
    • Rotokas: vuku
  • Chichewa: buku
  • Hawaiian: puke
  • Malagasy: boky
  • Maori: pukapuka (with reduplication)
  • Marshallese: bok
  • Motu: buka
  • Malagasy: boky
  • Shona: bhuku
  • Somali: buugga
  • Sotho: buka (possibly also from Afrikaans boek)
  • Zulu: ibhuku (possibly also from Afrikaans boek)
Translations[edit]
See also[edit]
  • incunable
  • scroll
  • tome
  • volume

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English booken, boken, from Old English bōcian, ġebōcian, from the noun (see above).

Verb[edit]

book (third-person singular simple present books, present participle booking, simple past and past participle booked)

  1. (transitive) To reserve (something) for future use.

    I want to book a hotel room for tomorrow night.

    I can book tickets for the concert next week.

    • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68:

      I haven’t booked, so I don’t have a clue as to whether the service will be busy or not. Supposedly, reservations are compulsory, but I want to find out what would happen if you just turn up.

    Synonym: reserve
  2. (transitive) To write down, to register or record in a book or as in a book.
    They booked that message from the hill
    Synonyms: make a note of, note down, record, write down
  3. (transitive) To add a name to the list of people who are participating in something.
    I booked a flight to New York.
    Synonyms: sign up, register, reserve, schedule, enroll
  4. (law enforcement, transitive) To record the name and other details of a suspected offender and the offence for later judicial action.
    The police booked him for driving too fast.
  5. (sports) To issue a caution to, usually a yellow card, or a red card if a yellow card has already been issued.
  6. (intransitive, slang) To travel very fast.
    He was really booking, until he passed the speed trap.
    Synonyms: bomb, hurtle, rocket, speed, shoot, whiz
  7. To record bets as bookmaker.
  8. (transitive, law student slang) To receive the highest grade in a class.
    The top three students had a bet on which one was going to book their intellectual property class.
  9. (intransitive, slang) To leave.
    He was here earlier, but he booked.
Derived terms[edit]
  • block-book
  • bookable
  • booking
  • double-book
  • overbook
  • rebook
  • unbook
  • underbook
Translations[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

From Middle English book, bok, from Old English bōc, from Proto-Germanic *bōk, first and third person singular indicative past tense of Proto-Germanic *bakaną (to bake).

Verb[edit]

book

  1. (UK dialectal, Northern England) simple past tense of bake

References[edit]

  1. ^ Book” in John Walker, A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary [] , London: Sold by G. G. J. and J. Robinſon, Paternoſter Row; and T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1791, →OCLC, page 118, column 2.
  2. ^ Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. →ISBN

Anagrams[edit]

  • Boko, Koob, boko, bòkò, kobo

Chinese[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English book.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • Cantonese (Jyutping): buk1

  • Cantonese
    • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)+
      • Jyutping: buk1
      • Yale: būk
      • Cantonese Pinyin: buk7
      • Guangdong Romanization: bug1
      • Sinological IPA (key): /pʊk̚⁵/

Verb[edit]

book

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, colloquial) to book; to reserve

[edit]

  • booking

Limburgish[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

  • bouk (Sittard, amongst other dialects)
    • Bouk (Eupen)
  • Bock (Krefeld)

Etymology[edit]

From Middle Low German bôk, from Old Saxon bōk, from Proto-West Germanic *bōk, from Proto-Germanic *bōks.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /boːk/
  • Hyphenation: book
  • Rhymes: -oːk

Noun[edit]

book n

  1. (many dialects) book

Declension[edit]

    Declension of book (neuter) in Limburgish.

Derived terms[edit]

  • bokebazel
  • bokebijeinzeumering
  • bokebon
  • bokekas
  • bokelies
  • bokelègker
  • bokemerret
  • bokeplaank
  • bokerèk
  • bokestäönder
  • boketaol
  • bokewiesheid
  • bokezin
  • bookgesjef
  • daagbook
  • gastebook
  • jaorbook
  • kasbook
  • kingerbook
  • kookbook
  • leesbook
  • printebook
  • receptebook
  • waordebook
  • wètbook

Mansaka[edit]

Noun[edit]

book

  1. piece

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Noun[edit]

book

  1. Alternative form of bok

Etymology 2[edit]

Noun[edit]

book

  1. Alternative form of bouk

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Verb[edit]

book

  1. imperative of booke

A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover.[1] The technical term for this physical arrangement is codex (plural, codices). In the history of hand-held physical supports for extended written compositions or records, the codex replaces its predecessor, the scroll. A single sheet in a codex is a leaf and each side of a leaf is a page.

As an intellectual object, a book is prototypically a composition of such great length that it takes a considerable investment of time to compose and still considered as an investment of time to read. In a restricted sense, a book is a self-sufficient section or part of a longer composition, a usage reflecting that, in antiquity, long works had to be written on several scrolls and each scroll had to be identified by the book it contained. Each part of Aristotle’s Physics is called a book. In an unrestricted sense, a book is the compositional whole of which such sections, whether called books or chapters or parts, are parts.

The intellectual content in a physical book need not be a composition, nor even be called a book. Books can consist only of drawings, engravings or photographs, crossword puzzles or cut-out dolls. In a physical book, the pages can be left blank or can feature an abstract set of lines to support entries, such as in an account book, appointment book, autograph book, notebook, diary or sketchbook. Some physical books are made with pages thick and sturdy enough to support other physical objects, like a scrapbook or photograph album. Books may be distributed in electronic form as ebooks and other formats.

Although in ordinary academic parlance a monograph is understood to be a specialist academic work, rather than a reference work on a scholarly subject, in library and information science monograph denotes more broadly any non-serial publication complete in one volume (book) or a finite number of volumes (even a novel like Proust’s seven-volume In Search of Lost Time), in contrast to serial publications like a magazine, journal or newspaper. An avid reader or collector of books is a bibliophile or, colloquially, «bookworm». Books are traded at both regular stores and specialized bookstores, and people can read borrowed books, often for free, at libraries. Google has estimated that by 2010, approximately 130,000,000 titles had been published.[2]

In some wealthier nations, the sale of printed books has decreased because of the increased usage of ebooks.[3] Although in most countries printed books continue to outsell their digital counterparts due to many people still preferring to read in a traditional way.[4][5][6][7] The 21st century has also seen a rapid rise in the popularity of audiobooks, which are recordings of books being read aloud.[8]

Etymology

The word book comes from Old English bōc, which in turn comes from the Germanic root *bōk-, cognate to ‘beech’.[9] In Slavic languages like Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian буква bukva—’letter’ is cognate with ‘beech’. In Russian, Serbian and Macedonian, the word букварь (bukvar’) or буквар (bukvar) refers to a primary school textbook that helps young children master the techniques of reading and writing. It is thus conjectured that the earliest Indo-European writings may have been carved on beech wood.[10] The Latin word codex, meaning a book in the modern sense (bound and with separate leaves), originally meant ‘block of wood’.[11]

History

Antiquity

Fragments of the Instructions of Shuruppak: «Shurrupak gave instructions to his son: Do not buy an ass which brays too much. Do not commit rape upon a man’s daughter, do not announce it to the courtyard. Do not answer back against your father, do not raise a ‘heavy eye.'». From Adab, c. 2600–2500 BCE[12]

When writing systems were created in ancient civilizations, a variety of objects, such as stone, clay, tree bark, metal sheets, and bones, were used for writing; these are studied in epigraphy.

Tablet

A tablet is a physically robust writing medium, suitable for casual transport and writing. Clay tablets were flattened and mostly dry pieces of clay that could be easily carried, and impressed with a stylus. They were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Wax tablets were pieces of wood covered in a coating of wax thick enough to record the impressions of a stylus. They were the normal writing material in schools, in accounting, and for taking notes. They had the advantage of being reusable: the wax could be melted, and reformed into a blank.

The custom of binding several wax tablets together (Roman pugillares) is a possible precursor of modern bound (codex) books.[13] The etymology of the word codex (block of wood) also suggests that it may have developed from wooden wax tablets.[14]

Scroll

Scrolls can be made from papyrus, a thick paper-like material made by weaving the stems of the papyrus plant, then pounding the woven sheet with a hammer-like tool until it is flattened. Papyrus was used for writing in Ancient Egypt, perhaps as early as the First Dynasty, although the first evidence is from the account books of King Neferirkare Kakai of the Fifth Dynasty (about 2400 BC).[15] Papyrus sheets were glued together to form a scroll. Tree bark such as lime and other materials were also used.[16]

According to Herodotus (History 5:58), the Phoenicians brought writing and papyrus to Greece around the 10th or 9th century BC. The Greek word for papyrus as writing material (biblion) and book (biblos) come from the Phoenician port town Byblos, through which papyrus was exported to Greece.[17] From Greek we also derive the word tome (Greek: τόμος), which originally meant a slice or piece and from there began to denote «a roll of papyrus». Tomus was used by the Latins with exactly the same meaning as volumen (see also below the explanation by Isidore of Seville).

Whether made from papyrus, parchment, or paper, scrolls were the dominant form of book in the Hellenistic, Roman, Chinese, Hebrew, and Macedonian cultures. The Romans and Etruscans also made ‘books’ out of folded linen called in Latin Libri lintei, the only extant example of which is the Etruscan Liber Linteus. The more modern codex book format form took over the Roman world by late antiquity, but the scroll format persisted much longer in Asia.

Codex

A Chinese bamboo book meets the modern definition of Codex.

Isidore of Seville (died 636) explained the then-current relation between a codex, book, and scroll in his Etymologiae (VI.13): «A codex is composed of many books; a book is of one scroll. It is called codex by way of metaphor from the trunks (codex) of trees or vines, as if it were a wooden stock, because it contains in itself a multitude of books, as it were of branches». Modern usage differs.

A codex (in modern usage) is the first information repository that modern people would recognize as a «book»: leaves of uniform size bound in some manner along one edge, and typically held between two covers made of some more robust material. The first written mention of the codex as a form of book is from Martial, in his Apophoreta CLXXXIV at the end of the first century, where he praises its compactness. However, the codex never gained much popularity in the pagan Hellenistic world, and only within the Christian community did it gain widespread use.[18] This change happened gradually during the 3rd and 4th centuries, and the reasons for adopting the codex form of the book are several: the format is more economical, as both sides of the writing material can be used; and it is portable, searchable, and easy to conceal. A book is much easier to read, to find a page that you want, and to flip through. A scroll is more awkward to use. The Christian authors may also have wanted to distinguish their writings from the pagan and Judaic texts written on scrolls. In addition, some metal books were made, that required smaller pages of metal, instead of an impossibly long, unbending scroll of metal. A book can also be easily stored in more compact places, or side by side in a tight library or shelf space.

Manuscripts

The fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD saw the decline of the culture of ancient Rome. Papyrus became difficult to obtain due to lack of contact with Egypt, and parchment, which had been used for centuries, became the main writing material. Parchment is a material made from processed animal skin and used—mainly in the past—for writing on.
Parchment is most commonly made of calfskin, sheepskin, or goatskin. It was historically used for writing documents, notes, or the pages of a book. Parchment is limed, scraped and dried under tension. It is not tanned, and is thus different from leather. This makes it more suitable for writing on, but leaves it very reactive to changes in relative humidity and makes it revert to rawhide if overly wet.

Monasteries carried on the Latin writing tradition in the Western Roman Empire. Cassiodorus, in the monastery of Vivarium (established around 540), stressed the importance of copying texts.[19] St. Benedict of Nursia, in his Rule of Saint Benedict (completed around the middle of the 6th century) later also promoted reading.[20] The Rule of Saint Benedict (Ch. XLVIII), which set aside certain times for reading, greatly influenced the monastic culture of the Middle Ages and is one of the reasons why the clergy were the predominant readers of books. The tradition and style of the Roman Empire still dominated, but slowly the peculiar medieval book culture emerged.

The Codex Amiatinus anachronistically depicts the Biblical Ezra with the kind of books used in the 8th century AD.

Before the invention and adoption of the printing press, almost all books were copied by hand, which made books expensive and comparatively rare. Smaller monasteries usually had only a few dozen books, medium-sized perhaps a few hundred. By the 9th century, larger collections held around 500 volumes and even at the end of the Middle Ages, the papal library in Avignon and Paris library of the Sorbonne held only around 2,000 volumes.[21]

The scriptorium of the monastery was usually located over the chapter house. Artificial light was forbidden for fear it may damage the manuscripts. There were five types of scribes:

  • Calligraphers, who dealt in fine book production
  • Copyists, who dealt with basic production and correspondence
  • Correctors, who collated and compared a finished book with the manuscript from which it had been produced
  • Illuminators, who painted illustrations
  • Rubricators, who painted in the red letters

Burgundian author and scribe Jean Miélot, from his Miracles de Notre Dame, 15th century

The bookmaking process was long and laborious. The parchment had to be prepared, then the unbound pages were planned and ruled with a blunt tool or lead, after which the text was written by the scribe, who usually left blank areas for illustration and rubrication. Finally, the book was bound by the bookbinder.[22]

Different types of ink were known in antiquity, usually prepared from soot and gum, and later also from gall nuts and iron vitriol. This gave writing a brownish black color, but black or brown were not the only colors used. There are texts written in red or even gold, and different colors were used for illumination. For very luxurious manuscripts the whole parchment was colored purple, and the text was written on it with gold or silver (for example, Codex Argenteus).[23]

Irish monks introduced spacing between words in the 7th century. This facilitated reading, as these monks tended to be less familiar with Latin. However, the use of spaces between words did not become commonplace before the 12th century. It has been argued that the use of spacing between words shows the transition from semi-vocalized reading into silent reading.[24]

The first books used parchment or vellum (calfskin) for the pages. The book covers were made of wood and covered with leather. Because dried parchment tends to assume the form it had before processing, the books were fitted with clasps or straps. During the later Middle Ages, when public libraries appeared, up to the 18th century, books were often chained to a bookshelf or a desk to prevent theft. These chained books are called libri catenati.

At first, books were copied mostly in monasteries, one at a time. With the rise of universities in the 13th century, the Manuscript culture of the time led to an increase in the demand for books, and a new system for copying books appeared. The books were divided into unbound leaves (pecia), which were lent out to different copyists, so the speed of book production was considerably increased. The system was maintained by secular stationers guilds, which produced both religious and non-religious material.[25]

Judaism has kept the art of the scribe alive up to the present. According to Jewish tradition, the Torah scroll placed in a synagogue must be written by hand on parchment and a printed book would not do, though the congregation may use printed prayer books and printed copies of the Scriptures are used for study outside the synagogue. A sofer «scribe» is a highly respected member of any observant Jewish community.

Middle East

People of various religious (Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Muslims) and ethnic backgrounds (Syriac, Coptic, Persian, Arab etc.) in the Middle East also produced and bound books in the Islamic Golden Age (mid 8th century to 1258), developing advanced techniques in Islamic calligraphy, miniatures and bookbinding. A number of cities in the medieval Islamic world had book production centers and book markets. Yaqubi (died 897) says that in his time Baghdad had over a hundred booksellers.[26] Book shops were often situated around the town’s principal mosque[27] as in Marrakesh, Morocco, that has a street named Kutubiyyin or book sellers in English and the famous Koutoubia Mosque is named so because of its location in this street.

The medieval Muslim world also used a method of reproducing reliable copies of a book in large quantities known as check reading, in contrast to the traditional method of a single scribe producing only a single copy of a single manuscript. In the check reading method, only «authors could authorize copies, and this was done in public sessions in which the copyist read the copy aloud in the presence of the author, who then certified it as accurate.»[28] With this check-reading system, «an author might produce a dozen or more copies from a single reading,» and with two or more readings, «more than one hundred copies of a single book could easily be produced.»[29] By using as writing material the relatively cheap paper instead of parchment or papyrus the Muslims, in the words of Pedersen «accomplished a feat of crucial significance not only to the history of the Islamic book, but also to the whole world of books».[30]

Wood block printing

Bagh print, a traditional woodblock printing technique that originated in Bagh, Madhya Pradesh, India

In woodblock printing, a relief image of an entire page was carved into blocks of wood, inked, and used to print copies of that page. This method originated in China, in the Han dynasty (before 220 AD), as a method of printing on textiles and later paper, and was widely used throughout East Asia. The oldest dated book printed by this method is The Diamond Sutra (868 AD). The method (called woodcut when used in art) arrived in Europe in the early 14th century. Books (known as block-books), as well as playing-cards and religious pictures, began to be produced by this method. Creating an entire book was a painstaking process, requiring a hand-carved block for each page; and the wood blocks tended to crack, if stored for long. The monks or people who wrote them were paid highly.

Movable type and incunabula

Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Son Masters, the earliest known book printed with movable metal type, printed in Korea, in 1377, Bibliothèque nationale de France

The Chinese inventor Bi Sheng made movable type of earthenware c. 1045, but there are no known surviving examples of his printing. Around 1450, in what is commonly regarded as an independent invention, Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type in Europe, along with innovations in casting the type based on a matrix and hand mould. This invention gradually made books less expensive to produce and more widely available.

A 15th-century Incunable. Notice the blind-tooled cover, corner bosses and clasps.

Early printed books, single sheets and images which were created before 1501 in Europe are known as incunables or incunabula. «A man born in 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, could look back from his fiftieth year on a lifetime in which about eight million books had been printed, more perhaps than all the scribes of Europe had produced since Constantine founded his city in AD 330.»[31]

19th century to 21st centuries

Steam-powered printing presses became popular in the early 19th century. These machines could print 1,100 sheets per hour,[32] but workers could only set 2,000 letters per hour.[citation needed] Monotype and linotype typesetting machines were introduced in the late 19th century. They could set more than 6,000 letters per hour and an entire line of type at once. There have been numerous improvements in the printing press. As well, the conditions for freedom of the press have been improved through the gradual relaxation of restrictive censorship laws. See also intellectual property, public domain, copyright. In mid-20th century, European book production had risen to over 200,000 titles per year.

Throughout the 20th century, libraries have faced an ever-increasing rate of publishing, sometimes called an information explosion. The advent of electronic publishing and the internet means that much new information is not printed in paper books, but is made available online through a digital library, on CD-ROM, in the form of ebooks or other online media. An on-line book is an ebook that is available online through the internet. Though many books are produced digitally, most digital versions are not available to the public, and there is no decline in the rate of paper publishing.[33] There is an effort, however, to convert books that are in the public domain into a digital medium for unlimited redistribution and infinite availability. This effort is spearheaded by Project Gutenberg combined with Distributed Proofreaders. There have also been new developments in the process of publishing books. Technologies such as POD or «print on demand», which make it possible to print as few as one book at a time, have made self-publishing (and vanity publishing) much easier and more affordable. On-demand publishing has allowed publishers, by avoiding the high costs of warehousing, to keep low-selling books in print rather than declaring them out of print.

Indian manuscripts

Goddess Saraswati image dated 132 AD excavated from Kankali tila depicts her holding a manuscript in her left hand represented as a bound and tied palm leaf or birch bark manuscript. In India a bounded manuscript made of birch bark or palm leaf existed side by side since antiquity.[34] The text in palm leaf manuscripts was inscribed with a knife pen on rectangular cut and cured palm leaf sheets; colouring was then applied to the surface and wiped off, leaving the ink in the incised grooves. Each sheet typically had a hole through which a string could pass, and with these the sheets were tied together with a string to bind like a book.

Mesoamerican codices

The codices of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America) had the same form as the European codex, but were instead made with long folded strips of either fig bark (amatl) or plant fibers, often with a layer of whitewash applied before writing. New World codices were written as late as the 16th century (see Maya codices and Aztec codices). Those written before the Spanish conquests seem all to have been single long sheets folded concertina-style, sometimes written on both sides of the local amatl paper.

Modern manufacturing

The spine of the book is an important aspect in book design, especially in the cover design. When the books are stacked up or stored in a shelf, the details on the spine is the only visible surface that contains the information about the book. In stores, it is the details on the spine that attract a buyer’s attention first.

The methods used for the printing and binding of books continued fundamentally unchanged from the 15th century into the early 20th century. While there was more mechanization, a book printer in 1900 had much in common with Gutenberg. Gutenberg’s invention was the use of movable metal types, assembled into words, lines, and pages and then printed by letterpress to create multiple copies. Modern paper books are printed on papers designed specifically for printed books. Traditionally, book papers are off-white or low-white papers (easier to read), are opaque to minimize the show-through of text from one side of the page to the other and are (usually) made to tighter caliper or thickness specifications, particularly for case-bound books. Different paper qualities are used depending on the type of book: Machine finished coated papers, woodfree uncoated papers, coated fine papers and special fine papers are common paper grades.

Today, the majority of books are printed by offset lithography.[35] When a book is printed, the pages are laid out on the plate so that after the printed sheet is folded the pages will be in the correct sequence. Books tend to be manufactured nowadays in a few standard sizes. The sizes of books are usually specified as «trim size»: the size of the page after the sheet has been folded and trimmed. The standard sizes result from sheet sizes (therefore machine sizes) which became popular 200 or 300 years ago, and have come to dominate the industry. British conventions in this regard prevail throughout the English-speaking world, except for the US. The European book manufacturing industry works to a completely different set of standards.

Processes

Layout

Modern bound books are organized according to a particular format called the book’s layout. Although there is great variation in layout, modern books tend to adhere to a set of rules with regard to what the parts of the layout are and what their content usually includes. A basic layout will include a front cover, a back cover and the book’s content which is called its body copy or content pages. The front cover often bears the book’s title (and subtitle, if any) and the name of its author or editor(s). The inside front cover page is usually left blank in both hardcover and paperback books. The next section, if present, is the book’s front matter, which includes all textual material after the front cover but not part of the book’s content such as a foreword, a dedication, a table of contents and publisher data such as the book’s edition or printing number and place of publication. Between the body copy and the back cover goes the end matter which would include any indices, sets of tables, diagrams, glossaries or lists of cited works (though an edited book with several authors usually places cited works at the end of each authored chapter). The inside back cover page, like that inside the front cover, is usually blank. The back cover is the usual place for the book’s ISBN and maybe a photograph of the author(s)/ editor(s), perhaps with a short introduction to them. Also here often appear plot summaries, barcodes and excerpted reviews of the book.[36]

The body of the books is usually divided into parts, chapters, sections and sometimes subsections that are composed of at least a paragraph or more.

Printing

Some books, particularly those with shorter runs (i.e. with fewer copies) will be printed on sheet-fed offset presses, but most books are now printed on web presses, which are fed by a continuous roll of paper, and can consequently print more copies in a shorter time. As the production line circulates, a complete «book» is collected together in one stack of pages, and another machine carries out the folding, pleating, and stitching of the pages into bundles of signatures (sections of pages) ready to go into the gathering line. Note that the pages of a book are printed two at a time, not as one complete book. Excess numbers are printed to make up for any spoilage due to make-readies or test pages to assure final print quality.

A make-ready is the preparatory work carried out by the pressmen to get the printing press up to the required quality of impression. Included in make-ready is the time taken to mount the plate onto the machine, clean up any mess from the previous job, and get the press up to speed. As soon as the pressman decides that the printing is correct, all the make-ready sheets will be discarded, and the press will start making books. Similar make readies take place in the folding and binding areas, each involving spoilage of paper.

Binding

After the signatures are folded and gathered, they move into the bindery. In the middle of last century there were still many trade binders—stand-alone binding companies which did no printing, specializing in binding alone. At that time, because of the dominance of letterpress printing, typesetting and printing took place in one location, and binding in a different factory. When type was all metal, a typical book’s worth of type would be bulky, fragile and heavy. The less it was moved in this condition the better: so printing would be carried out in the same location as the typesetting. Printed sheets on the other hand could easily be moved. Now, because of increasing computerization of preparing a book for the printer, the typesetting part of the job has flowed upstream, where it is done either by separately contracting companies working for the publisher, by the publishers themselves, or even by the authors. Mergers in the book manufacturing industry mean that it is now unusual to find a bindery which is not also involved in book printing (and vice versa).

If the book is a hardback its path through the bindery will involve more points of activity than if it is a paperback. Unsewn binding is now increasingly common. The signatures of a book can also be held together by «Smyth sewing» using needles, «McCain sewing», using drilled holes often used in schoolbook binding, or «notch binding», where gashes about an inch long are made at intervals through the fold in the spine of each signature. The rest of the binding process is similar in all instances. Sewn and notch bound books can be bound as either hardbacks or paperbacks.

Finishing

«Making cases» happens off-line and prior to the book’s arrival at the binding line. In the most basic case-making, two pieces of cardboard are placed onto a glued piece of cloth with a space between them into which is glued a thinner board cut to the width of the spine of the book. The overlapping edges of the cloth (about 5/8″ all round) are folded over the boards, and pressed down to adhere. After case-making the stack of cases will go to the foil stamping area for adding decorations and type.

Digital printing

Recent developments in book manufacturing include the development of digital printing. Book pages are printed, in much the same way as an office copier works, using toner rather than ink. Each book is printed in one pass, not as separate signatures. Digital printing has permitted the manufacture of much smaller quantities than offset, in part because of the absence of make readies and of spoilage. One might think of a web press as printing quantities over 2000, quantities from 250 to 2000 being printed on sheet-fed presses, and digital presses doing quantities below 250.[citation needed] These numbers are of course only approximate and will vary from supplier to supplier, and from book to book depending on its characteristics. Digital printing has opened up the possibility of print-on-demand, where no books are printed until after an order is received from a customer.

Ebook

In the 2000s, due to the rise in availability of affordable handheld computing devices, the opportunity to share texts through electronic means became an appealing option for media publishers.[37] Thus, the «ebook» was made. The term ebook is a contraction of «electronic book»; which refers to a book-length publication in digital form.[38] An ebook is usually made available through the internet, but also on CD-ROM and other forms. Ebooks may be read either via a computing device with an LED display such as a traditional computer, a smartphone, or a tablet computer; or by means of a portable e-ink display device known as an ebook reader, such as the Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo eReader, or the Amazon Kindle. Ebook readers attempt to mimic the experience of reading a print book by using the e-ink technology, since the displays on ebook readers are much less reflective.

Audiobooks

Audiobooks, or recordings of people reading books aloud, were first created in 1932 in the United States. The first audiobooks were created by the American Foundation for the Blind on vinyl records, where each side could hold 15 minutes of recording. The first recorded pieces were some of William Shakespeare’s plays, the Constitution of the United States, and the novel As the Earth Turns by Gladys Hasty Carroll. Gradually over the course of the 20th century and with the dawn of cassette tapes and compact discs, audiobooks began to be sold by booksellers who often had dedicated sections. Publishers of books additionally created divisions within their companies dedicated to audiobooks. By the turn of the millennium, audiobooks were digitally distributed on devices designed around audiobooks, and audiobooks began to receive different narrators for different parts. Some companies, such as the Amazon subsidiary Audible, are tailored to work exclusively in audiobooks, and while their effectiveness is subject to wide debate, sales of audiobooks continue to skyrocket in the present day.[39][8]

Design

Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the various components of a book into a coherent whole. In the words of Jan Tschichold, book design «though largely forgotten today, methods and rules upon which it is impossible to improve have been developed over centuries. To produce perfect books these rules have to be brought back to life and applied.» Richard Hendel describes book design as «an arcane subject» and refers to the need for a context to understand what that means. Many different creators can contribute to book design, including graphic designers, artists and editors.

Sizes

Actual-size facsimile of the Codex Gigas, also known as the ‘Devil’s Bible’ (from the illustration at right)

A page from the world’s largest book. Each page is three and a half feet wide, five feet tall and a little over five inches thick.

The size of a modern book is based on the printing area of a common flatbed press. The pages of type were arranged and clamped in a frame, so that when printed on a sheet of paper the full size of the press, the pages would be right side up and in order when the sheet was folded, and the folded edges trimmed.

The most common book sizes are:

  • Quarto (4to): the sheet of paper is folded twice, forming four leaves (eight pages) approximately 11–13 inches (c. 30 cm) tall
  • Octavo (8vo): the most common size for current hardcover books. The sheet is folded three times into eight leaves (16 pages) up to 9+34 inches (c. 23 cm) tall.
  • DuoDecimo (12mo): a size between 8vo and 16mo, up to 7+34 inches (c. 18 cm) tall
  • Sextodecimo (16mo): the sheet is folded four times, forming 16 leaves (32 pages) up to 6+34 inches (c. 15 cm) tall

Sizes smaller than 16mo are:

  • 24mo: up to 5+34 inches (c. 13 cm) tall.
  • 32mo: up to 5 inches (c. 12 cm) tall.
  • 48mo: up to 4 inches (c. 10 cm) tall.
  • 64mo: up to 3 inches (c. 8 cm) tall.

Small books can be called booklets.

Sizes larger than quarto are:

  • Folio: up to 15 inches (c. 38 cm) tall.
  • Elephant Folio: up to 23 inches (c. 58 cm) tall.
  • Atlas Folio: up to 25 inches (c. 63 cm) tall.
  • Double Elephant Folio: up to 50 inches (c. 127 cm) tall.

The largest extant medieval manuscript in the world is Codex Gigas 92 × 50 × 22 cm. The world’s largest book is made of stone and is in Kuthodaw Pagoda (Burma).

Types

By content

A common separation by content are fiction and non-fiction books. This simple separation can be found in most collections, libraries, and bookstores. There are other types such as books of sheet music.

Fiction

Many of the books published today are «fiction», meaning that they contain invented material, and are creative literature. Other literary forms such as poetry are included in the broad category. Most fiction is additionally categorized by literary form and genre.

The novel is the most common form of fiction book. Novels are stories that typically feature a plot, setting, themes and characters. Stories and narrative are not restricted to any topic; a novel can be whimsical, serious or controversial. The novel has had a tremendous impact on entertainment and publishing markets.[40] A novella is a term sometimes used for fiction prose typically between 17,500 and 40,000 words, and a novelette between 7,500 and 17,500. A short story may be any length up to 10,000 words, but these word lengths vary.

Comic books or graphic novels are books in which the story is illustrated. The characters and narrators use speech or thought bubbles to express verbal language.

Non-fiction

Non-fiction books are in principle based on fact, on subjects such as history, politics, social and cultural issues, as well as autobiographies and memoirs. Nearly all academic literature is non-fiction. A reference book is a general type of non-fiction book which provides information as opposed to telling a story, essay, commentary, or otherwise supporting a point of view.

An almanac is a very general reference book, usually one-volume, with lists of data and information on many topics. An encyclopedia is a book or set of books designed to have more in-depth articles on many topics. A book listing words, their etymology, meanings, and other information is called a dictionary. A book which is a collection of maps is an atlas. A more specific reference book with tables or lists of data and information about a certain topic, often intended for professional use, is often called a handbook. Books which try to list references and abstracts in a certain broad area may be called an index, such as Engineering Index, or abstracts such as chemical abstracts and biological abstracts.

Books with technical information on how to do something or how to use some equipment are called instruction manuals. Other popular how-to books include cookbooks and home improvement books.

Students typically store and carry textbooks and schoolbooks for study purposes.

Unpublished

Many types of book are private, often filled in by the owner, for a variety of personal records. Elementary school pupils often use workbooks, which are published with spaces or blanks to be filled by them for study or homework. In US higher education, it is common for a student to take an exam using a blue book.

There is a large set of books that are made only to write private ideas, notes, and accounts. These books are rarely published and are typically destroyed or remain private. Notebooks are blank papers to be written in by the user. Students and writers commonly use them for taking notes. Scientists and other researchers use lab notebooks to record their notes. They often feature spiral coil bindings at the edge so that pages may easily be torn out.

Address books, phone books, and calendar/appointment books are commonly used on a daily basis for recording appointments, meetings and personal contact information. Books for recording periodic entries by the user, such as daily information about a journey, are called logbooks or logs. A similar book for writing the owner’s daily private personal events, information, and ideas is called a diary or personal journal. Businesses use accounting books such as journals and ledgers to record financial data in a practice called bookkeeping (now usually held on computers rather than in hand-written form).

Other

There are several other types of books which are not commonly found under this system. Albums are books for holding a group of items belonging to a particular theme, such as a set of photographs, card collections, and memorabilia. One common example is stamp albums, which are used by many hobbyists to protect and organize their collections of postage stamps. Such albums are often made using removable plastic pages held inside in a ringed binder or other similar holder. Picture books are books for children with pictures on every page and less text (or even no text).

Hymnals are books with collections of musical hymns that can typically be found in churches. Prayerbooks or missals are books that contain written prayers and are commonly carried by monks, nuns, and other devoted followers or clergy. Lap books are a learning tool created by students.

Decodable readers and leveling

A leveled book collection is a set of books organized in levels of difficulty from the easy books appropriate for an emergent reader to longer more complex books adequate for advanced readers. Decodable readers or books are a specialized type of leveled books that use decodable text only including controlled lists of words, sentences and stories consistent with the letters and phonics that have been taught to the emergent reader. New sounds and letters are added to higher level decodable books, as the level of instruction progresses, allowing for higher levels of accuracy, comprehension and fluency.

By physical format

Hardcover books have a stiff binding. Paperback books have cheaper, flexible covers which tend to be less durable. An alternative to paperback is the glossy cover, otherwise known as a dust cover, found on magazines, and comic books. Spiral-bound books are bound by spirals made of metal or plastic. Examples of spiral-bound books include teachers’ manuals and puzzle books (crosswords, sudoku).

Publishing is a process for producing pre-printed books, magazines, and newspapers for the reader/user to buy.

Publishers may produce low-cost, pre-publication copies known as galleys or ‘bound proofs’ for promotional purposes, such as generating reviews in advance of publication. Galleys are usually made as cheaply as possible, since they are not intended for sale.

Dummy books

Cigarette smuggling with a book

Dummy books (or faux books) are books that are designed to imitate a real book by appearance to deceive people, some books may be whole with empty pages, others may be hollow or in other cases, there may be a whole panel carved with spines which are then painted to look like books, titles of some books may also be fictitious.

There are many reasons to have dummy books on display such as; to allude visitors of the vast wealth of information in their possession and to inflate the owner’s appearance of wealth, to conceal something,[41] for shop displays or for decorative purposes.

In early 19th century at Gwrych Castle, North Wales, Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh was known for his vast collection of books at his library, however, at the later part of that same century, the public became aware that parts of his library was a fabrication, dummy books were built and then locked behind glass doors to stop people from trying to access them, from this a proverb was born, «Like Hesky’s library, all outside».[42][43]

Libraries

Private or personal libraries made up of non-fiction and fiction books, (as opposed to the state or institutional records kept in archives) first appeared in classical Greece. In the ancient world, the maintaining of a library was usually (but not exclusively) the privilege of a wealthy individual. These libraries could have been either private or public, i.e. for people who were interested in using them. The difference from a modern public library lies in that they were usually not funded from public sources. It is estimated that in the city of Rome at the end of the 3rd century there were around 30 public libraries. Public libraries also existed in other cities of the ancient Mediterranean region (for example, Library of Alexandria).[44] Later, in the Middle Ages, monasteries and universities also had libraries that could be accessible to the general public. Typically not the whole collection was available to the public; the books could not be borrowed and often were chained to reading stands to prevent theft.

The beginning of the modern public library begins around 15th century when individuals started to donate books to towns.[45] The growth of a public library system in the United States started in the late 19th century and was much helped by donations from Andrew Carnegie. This reflected classes in a society: the poor or the middle class had to access most books through a public library or by other means, while the rich could afford to have a private library built in their homes. In the United States the Boston Public Library 1852 Report of the Trustees established the justification for the public library as a tax-supported institution intended to extend educational opportunity and provide for general culture.[46]

The advent of paperback books in the 20th century led to an explosion of popular publishing. Paperback books made owning books affordable for many people. Paperback books often included works from genres that had previously been published mostly in pulp magazines. As a result of the low cost of such books and the spread of bookstores filled with them (in addition to the creation of a smaller market of extremely cheap used paperbacks), owning a private library ceased to be a status symbol for the rich.

The development of libraries has prompted innovations to help store and organize books on shelves. In library and booksellers’ catalogues, it is common to include an abbreviation such as «Crown 8vo» to indicate the paper size from which the book is made. When rows of books are lined on a book holder, bookends are sometimes needed to keep them from slanting.

Identification and classification

During the 20th century, librarians were concerned about keeping track of the many books being added yearly to the Gutenberg Galaxy. Through a global society called the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), they devised a series of tools including the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD). Each book is specified by an International Standard Book Number, or ISBN, which is unique to every edition of every book produced by participating publishers, worldwide. It is managed by the ISBN Society. An ISBN has four parts: the first part is the country code, the second the publisher code, and the third the title code. The last part is a check digit, and can take values from 0–9 and X (10). The EAN Barcodes numbers for books are derived from the ISBN by prefixing 978, for Bookland, and calculating a new check digit.

Commercial publishers in industrialized countries generally assign ISBNs to their books, so buyers may presume that the ISBN is part of a total international system, with no exceptions. However, many government publishers, in industrial as well as developing countries, do not participate fully in the ISBN system, and publish books which do not have ISBNs. A large or public collection requires a catalogue. Codes called «call numbers» relate the books to the catalogue, and determine their locations on the shelves. Call numbers are based on a Library classification system. The call number is placed on the spine of the book, normally a short distance before the bottom, and inside. Institutional or national standards, such as ANSI/NISO Z39.41 – 1997, establish the correct way to place information (such as the title, or the name of the author) on book spines, and on «shelvable» book-like objects, such as containers for DVDs, video tapes and software.

Books on library shelves and call numbers visible on the spines

One of the earliest and most widely known systems of cataloguing books is the Dewey Decimal System. Another widely known system is the Library of Congress Classification system. Both systems are biased towards subjects which were well represented in US libraries when they were developed, and hence have problems handling new subjects, such as computing, or subjects relating to other cultures.[47] Information about books and authors can be stored in databases like online general-interest book databases. Metadata, which means «data about data» is information about a book. Metadata about a book may include its title, ISBN or other classification number (see above), the names of contributors (author, editor, illustrator) and publisher, its date and size, the language of the text, its subject matter, etc.

Classification systems

  • Bliss bibliographic classification (BC)
  • Chinese Library Classification (CLC)
  • Colon Classification
  • Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)
  • Harvard-Yenching Classification
  • Library of Congress Classification (LCC)
  • New Classification Scheme for Chinese Libraries
  • Universal Decimal Classification (UDC)

Uses

Aside from the primary purpose of reading them, books are also used for other ends:

  • A book can be an artistic artifact, a piece of art; this is sometimes known as an artists’ book.
  • A book may be evaluated by a reader or professional writer to create a book review.
  • A book may be read by a group of people to use as a spark for social or academic discussion, as in a book club.
  • A book may be studied by students as the subject of a writing and analysis exercise in the form of a book report.
  • Books are sometimes used for their exterior appearance to decorate a room, such as a study.

Marketing

Once the book is published, it is put on the market by distributors and bookstores. Meanwhile, its promotion comes from various media reports. Book marketing is governed by the law in many states.

Secondary spread

In recent years, the book had a second life in the form of reading aloud. This is called public readings of published works, with the assistance of professional readers (often known actors) and in close collaboration with writers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, leaders of the literary world and artists.

Many individual or collective practices exist to increase the number of readers of a book. Among them:

  • abandonment of books in public places, coupled or not with the use of the Internet, known as the bookcrossing;
  • provision of free books in third places, like bars or cafes;
  • itinerant or temporary libraries;
  • free public libraries in the area.

Industry evolution

This form of the book chain has hardly changed since the eighteenth century, and has not always been this way. Thus, the author has asserted gradually with time, and the copyright dates only from the nineteenth century. For many centuries, especially before the invention of printing, each freely copied out books that passed through his hands, adding if desired his own comments. Similarly, bookseller and publisher jobs have emerged with the invention of printing, which made the book an industrial product, requiring structures of production and marketing.

The invention of the Internet, e-readers, tablets, and projects like Wikipedia and Gutenberg, are likely to change the book industry for years to come.

Paper and conservation

Paper was first made in China as early as 200 BC, and reached Europe through Muslim territories. At first made of rags, the Industrial Revolution changed paper-making practices, allowing for paper to be made out of wood pulp. Papermaking in Europe began in the 11th century, although vellum was also common there as page material up until the beginning of the 16th century, vellum being the more expensive and durable option. Printers or publishers would often issue the same publication on both materials, to cater to more than one market.

Paper made from wood pulp became popular in the early 20th century, because it was cheaper than linen or abaca cloth-based papers. Pulp-based paper made books less expensive to the general public. This paved the way for huge leaps in the rate of literacy in industrialised nations, and enabled the spread of information during the Second Industrial Revolution.

Pulp paper, however, contains acid which eventually destroys the paper from within. Earlier techniques for making paper used limestone rollers, which neutralized the acid in the pulp. Books printed between 1850 and 1950 are primarily at risk; more recent books are often printed on acid-free or alkaline paper. Libraries today have to consider mass deacidification of their older collections in order to prevent decay.

Stability of the climate is critical to the long-term preservation of paper and book material.[48] Good air circulation is important to keep fluctuation in climate stable. The HVAC system should be up to date and functioning efficiently. Light is detrimental to collections. Therefore, care should be given to the collections by implementing light control. General housekeeping issues can be addressed, including pest control. In addition to these helpful solutions, a library must also make an effort to be prepared if a disaster occurs, one that they cannot control. Time and effort should be given to create a concise and effective disaster plan to counteract any damage incurred through «acts of God», therefore an emergency management plan should be in place.

See also

  • Outline of books
  • Alphabet book
  • Artist’s book
  • Audiobook
  • Bibliodiversity
  • Book burning
  • Booksellers
  • Lists of books
  • Miniature book
  • Open access book
  • Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP)

Citations

  1. ^ Feather, John; Sturges, Paul (2003). International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. p. 41. ISBN 0-415-25901-0. OCLC 50480180. Archived from the original on November 25, 2009. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  2. ^ Madrigal, Alexis C. (August 5, 2010). «Google: There Are Exactly 129,864,880 Books in the World». The Atlantic. Archived from the original on January 14, 2023. Retrieved January 14, 2023.
  3. ^ Curtis, George (2011). The Law of Cybercrimes and Their Investigations. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis. p. 161. ISBN 978-1-4398-5832-5. OCLC 908077615.
  4. ^ Ang, Carmen (October 15, 2021). «Print Has Prevailed: The Staying Power of Physical Books». Visual Capitalist. Archived from the original on August 19, 2022. Retrieved August 19, 2022.
  5. ^ Richter, Felix (April 21, 2022). «E-Books Still No Match for Printed Books». Statista. Archived from the original on March 12, 2023. Retrieved March 12, 2023.
  6. ^ Handley, Lucy (September 19, 2019). «Physical books still outsell e-books – and here’s why». CNBC. Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
  7. ^ Duffy, Kate (March 10, 2023). «Gen Zers are bookworms but say they’re shunning e-books because of eye strain, digital detoxing, and their love for libraries». Business Insider. Archived from the original on March 11, 2023. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  8. ^ a b Bussel, Rachel Kramer (December 31, 2021). «2021 Book Trends Show The Power Of BookTok And Rise Of Audiobooks». Forbes. Archived from the original on February 15, 2023. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  9. ^ «book | Etymology, origin and meaning of book». Online Etymology Dictionary. Archived from the original on June 27, 2017. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  10. ^ «Northvegr – Holy Language Lexicon». November 3, 2008. Archived from the original on November 3, 2008. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
  11. ^ «codex». Oxford Reference. Archived from the original on May 9, 2022. Retrieved May 9, 2022.
  12. ^ Biggs, Robert D. (1974). Inscriptions from Tell Abū Ṣalābīkh (PDF). Oriental Institute Publications. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-62202-9. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 29, 2012. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  13. ^ Avrin 2010, pp. 173.
  14. ^ Bischoff, Bernhard (1990). Latin palaeography antiquity and the Middle Ages. Dáibhí ó Cróinin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-521-36473-7. Archived from the original on August 21, 2021. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
  15. ^ Avrin 2010, p. 83.
  16. ^ Dard Hunter. Papermaking: History and Technique of an Ancient Craft New ed. Dover Publications 1978, p. 12.
  17. ^ Avrin 2010, pp. 144–145.
  18. ^ The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature. Edd. Frances Young, Lewis Ayres, Andrew Louth, Ron White. Cambridge University Press 2004, pp. 8–9.
  19. ^ Avrin 2010, pp. 207–208.
  20. ^ Theodore Maynard. Saint Benedict and His Monks. Staples Press Ltd 1956, pp. 70–71.
  21. ^ Joachim, Martin D. (2003). Historical Aspects of Cataloging and Classification. New York: Haworth Information Press. p. 452. ISBN 9780789019813. OCLC 683191430. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  22. ^ Diehl, Edith (1980). Bookbinding : its background and technique. New York: Dover Publications. pp. 14–16. ISBN 0-486-24020-7. OCLC 7027090.
  23. ^ Bernhard Bischoff. Latin Palaeography, pp. 16–17.
  24. ^ Paul Saenger. Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading. Stanford University Press 1997.
  25. ^ Bernhard Bischoff. Latin Palaeography, pp. 42–43.
  26. ^ W. Durant, «The Age of Faith», New York 1950, p. 236
  27. ^ S.E. Al-Djazairi «The Golden Age of Islamic Civilization», Manchester 1996, p. 200
  28. ^ Edmund Burke (June 2009). «Islam at the Center: Technological Complexes and the Roots of Modernity». Journal of World History. 20 (2): 165–86 [43]. doi:10.1353/jwh.0.0045. S2CID 143484233.
  29. ^ Edmund Burke (June 2009). «Islam at the Center: Technological Complexes and the Roots of Modernity». Journal of World History. 20 (2): 165–186 [44]. doi:10.1353/jwh.0.0045. S2CID 143484233.
  30. ^ Johs. Pedersen, «The Arabic Book», Princeton University Press, 1984, p. 59
  31. ^ Clapham, Michael, «Printing» in A History of Technology, Vol 2. From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, edd. Charles Singer et al. (Oxford 1957), p. 377. Cited from Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (Cambridge University, 1980).
  32. ^ Bruckner, D. J. R. (November 20, 1995). «How the Earlier Media Achieved Critical Mass: Printing Press;Yelling ‘Stop the Presses!’ Didn’t Happen Overnight». The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  33. ^ «Bowker Reports Traditional U.S. Book Production Flat in 2009». Archived from the original on January 28, 2012.
  34. ^ Kelting, M. Whitney (2001). Singing to the Jinas: Jain Laywomen, Mandal Singing, and the Negotiations of Jain Devotion. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-803211-3. Archived from the original on December 14, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  35. ^ Vermeer, Leslie (2016). The Complete Canadian Book Editor. Brush Education. ISBN 978-1-55059-677-9. Archived from the original on December 18, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  36. ^ Gary B. Shelly; Joy L. Starks (2011). Microsoft Publisher 2010: Comprehensive. Cengage Learning. p. 559. ISBN 978-1-133-17147-8. Archived from the original on December 21, 2019. Retrieved December 5, 2016.
  37. ^ Rainie, Lee; Zickuhr, Kathryn; Purcell, Kristen; Madden, Mary; Brenner, Joanna (April 4, 2012). «The rise of e-reading». Pew Internet Libraries. Archived from the original on February 1, 2017. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  38. ^ «What is an e-book». Archived from the original on July 22, 2012. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
  39. ^ «A short history of the audiobook, 20 years after the first portable digital audio device». PBS NewsHour. November 22, 2017. Archived from the original on February 15, 2023. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  40. ^ Edwin Mcdowell (October 30, 1989). «The Media Business; Publishers Worry After Fiction Sales Weaken». The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Retrieved January 25, 2008.
  41. ^ Golder, Joseph (October 28, 2021). «Man Finds Secret Passage Hidden Behind Bookshelf in His 500-Year-Old Home’s Library». Newsweek.com. Archived from the original on February 23, 2022. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  42. ^ Apperson, George Latimer (May 10, 2006). Dictionary of Proverbs. Wordsworth Editions. p. 279. ISBN 978-1-84022-311-8. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  43. ^ Sparke, Archibald (March 4, 1922). «Pseudo-titles for «Dummy» books». Notes and Queries. s12-X (203): 174. doi:10.1093/nq/s12-x.203.174a. ISSN 1471-6941. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  44. ^ Miriam A. Drake, Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science (Marcel Dekker, 2003), «Public Libraries, History».
  45. ^ Miriam A. Drake, Encyclopedia of Library, «Public Libraries, History».
  46. ^ McCook, Kathleen de la Peña (2011), Introduction to Public Librarianship, 2nd ed., p. 23 New York, Neal-Schuman.
  47. ^ Hoffman, Gretchen L. (August 5, 2019). Organizing Library Collections: Theory and Practice. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 167. ISBN 978-1-5381-0852-9. Archived from the original on August 6, 2021. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
  48. ^ Patkus, Beth (2003). «Assessing Preservation Needs, A Self-Survey Guide». Andover: Northeast Document Conservation Center.

Bibliography

  • «Book», in International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science («IEILS»), Editors: John Feather, Paul Sturges, 2003, Routledge, ISBN 978-1134513215
  • Avrin, Leila (2010). Scribes, Script, and Books : The Book Arts from Antiquity to the Renaissance. Chicago: American Library Association. ISBN 978-0-8389-1038-2. OCLC 489670041.

Further reading

  • Tim Parks (August 2017), «The Books We Don’t Understand», The New York Review of Books

External links

  • Information on Old Books, Smithsonian Libraries
  • «Manuscripts, Books, and Maps: The Printing Press and a Changing World»

book 1

 (bo͝ok)

n.

1.

a. A set of written, printed, or blank pages fastened along one side and encased between protective covers.

b. An e-book or other electronic resource structured like a book.

2.

a. A printed or written literary work: Did you ever finish writing that book?

b. A main division of a larger printed or written work: a book of the Old Testament.

3.

a. A volume in which financial or business transactions are recorded.

b. books Financial or business records considered as a group: checked the expenditures on the books.

4.

a. A libretto.

b. The script of a play.

5. Book

a. The Bible.

b. The Koran.

6.

a. A set of prescribed standards or rules on which decisions are based: runs the company by the book.

b. Something regarded as a source of knowledge or understanding.

c. The total amount of experience, knowledge, understanding, and skill that can be used in solving a problem or performing a task: We used every trick in the book to finish the project on schedule.

d. Informal Factual information, especially of a private nature: What’s the book on him?

7. A pack of like or similar items bound together: a book of matches.

8. A record of bets placed on a race.

9. Games The number of card tricks needed before any tricks can have scoring value, as the first six tricks taken by the declaring side in bridge.

v. booked, book·ing, books

v.tr.

1.

a. To arrange for or purchase (tickets or lodgings, for example) in advance; reserve.

b. To arrange a reservation, as for a hotel room, for (someone): Book me into the best hotel in town.

c. To hire or engage: booked a band for Saturday night.

2.

a. To list or register in a book: booked the revenue from last month’s sales.

b. To list or record appointments or engagements in: A calendar that was booked solid on Tuesday.

c. To record information about (a suspected offender) after arrest in preparation for arraignment, usually including a criminal history search, fingerprinting, and photographing.

d. Sports To record the flagrant fouls of (a player) for possible disciplinary action, as in soccer.

3. To designate a time for; schedule: Let’s book a meeting for next month.

4. To be hired for or engaged in: The actor has booked his next movie with that director.

v.intr.

To make a reservation: Book early if you want good seats.

adj.

1. Of or relating to knowledge learned from books rather than actual experience: has book smarts but not street smarts.

2. Appearing in a company’s financial records: book profits.

Idioms:

bring to book

To demand an explanation from; call to account.

in (one’s) book

In one’s opinion: In my book they both are wrong.

like a book

Thoroughly; completely: I know my child like a book.

one for the books

A noteworthy act or occurrence.

throw the book at

1. To make all possible charges against (a lawbreaker, for example).

2. To reprimand or punish severely.



book′er n.

Synonyms: book, bespeak, engage, reserve
These verbs mean to cause something to be set aside in advance, as for one’s use or possession: will book a hotel room; made sure their selections were bespoken; engaged a box for the opera season; reserving a table at a restaurant.

Word History: From an etymological perspective, book and beech are branches of the same tree. The Germanic root of both words is *bōk-, ultimately from an Indo-European root meaning «beech tree.» The Old English form of book is bōc, from Germanic *bōk-ō, «written document, book.» The Old English form of beech is bēce, from Germanic *bōk-jōn, «beech tree,» because the early Germanic peoples used strips of beech wood to write on. A similar semantic development occurred in Latin. The Latin word for book is liber, whence library. Liber, however, originally meant «bark»—that is, the smooth inner bark of a tree, which the early Romans likewise used to write on.


book 2

 (bo͝ok)

intr.v. booked, book·ing, books

Informal To move or travel rapidly: We booked along at a nice clip.


[Perhaps shortening and alteration (influenced by book) of boogie.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

book

(bʊk)

n

1. (Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) a number of printed or written pages bound together along one edge and usually protected by thick paper or stiff pasteboard covers. See also hardback, paperback

2.

a. a written work or composition, such as a novel, technical manual, or dictionary

b. (as modifier): the book trade; book reviews.

c. (in combination): bookseller; bookshop; bookshelf; bookrack.

3. a number of blank or ruled sheets of paper bound together, used to record lessons, keep accounts, etc

4. (Accounting & Book-keeping) (plural) a record of the transactions of a business or society

5. (Theatre) the script of a play or the libretto of an opera, musical, etc

6. (Bible) a major division of a written composition, as of a long novel or of the Bible

7. a number of tickets, sheets, stamps, etc, fastened together along one edge

8. (Horse Racing) bookmaking a record of the bets made on a horse race or other event

9. (Card Games) (in card games) the number of tricks that must be taken by a side or player before any trick has a scoring value: in bridge, six of the 13 tricks form the book.

10. strict or rigid regulations, rules, or standards (esp in the phrases according to the book, by the book)

11. a source of knowledge or authority: the book of life.

12. a telephone directory (in the phrase in the book)

13. (Bible) the book (sometimes capital) the Bible

14. an open book a person or subject that is thoroughly understood

15. a closed book a person or subject that is unknown or beyond comprehension: chemistry is a closed book to him.

16. bring to book to reprimand or require (someone) to give an explanation of his conduct

17. close the book on to bring to a definite end: we have closed the book on apartheid.

18. (Accounting & Book-keeping) close the books accounting to balance accounts in order to prepare a statement or report

19. cook the books informal to make fraudulent alterations to business or other accounts

20. in my book according to my view of things

21. in someone’s bad books regarded by someone with disfavour

22. in someone’s good books regarded by someone with favour

23. (Accounting & Book-keeping) keep the books to keep written records of the finances of a business or other enterprise

24. on the books

a. enrolled as a member

b. registered or recorded

25. read someone like a book to understand a person, or his motives, character, etc, thoroughly and clearly

26. throw the book at

a. to charge with every relevant offence

b. to inflict the most severe punishment on

vb

27. to reserve (a place, passage, etc) or engage the services of (a performer, driver, etc) in advance: to book a flight; to book a band.

28. (tr) to take the name and address of (a person guilty of a minor offence) with a view to bringing a prosecution: he was booked for ignoring a traffic signal.

29. (Soccer) (tr) (of a football referee) to take the name of (a player) who grossly infringes the rules while playing, two such acts resulting in the player’s dismissal from the field

30. (tr) archaic to record in a book

[Old English bōc; related to Old Norse bōk, Old High German buoh book, Gothic bōka letter; see beech (the bark of which was used as a writing surface)]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

book

(bʊk)

n.

1. a long written or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usu. on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers: a book of poems; a book of short stories.

2. such a literary work in any format: Do you like listening to books on tape?

3. a number of sheets of blank or ruled paper bound together for writing, recording business transactions, etc.

4. a division of a literary work, esp. one of the larger divisions.

5. the Book, the Bible.

6. the book,

a. a set of rules, conventions, or standards: to go according to the book; to know every trick in the book.

b. the telephone book.

7. the text or libretto of an opera, operetta, or musical.

8. books, the financial records of a business, institution, etc.

9. a script or story for a play.

10. the number of tricks that must be taken before any trick counts in the score of a card game.

11. a set or packet of tickets, checks, stamps, matches, etc., bound together like a book.

12. anything that serves for the recording of facts or events: The petrified tree was a book of nature.

13. gathered information and recommended strategy regarding a task, problem, opponent, etc., as in sports.

14. a pile or package of leaves, as of tobacco.

v.t.

16. to enter in a book or list; record; register.

17. to reserve or make a reservation for (a hotel room, passage on a ship, etc.).

18. to register or list (a person) for a place, transportation, appointment, etc.: The travel agent booked us on the next cruise.

19. to engage for one or more performances.

20. to enter a charge against (an arrested person) on a police register.

v.i.

21. to register one’s name.

22. to engage a place, services, etc.: Book early if you want a good table.

23. book in (or out), to sign in (or out), as at a job.

24. book up, to sell or buy out, fill up, or the like: Baseball fans have booked up the hotel for a week.

adj.

25. pertaining to or dealing with books: the book department; a book salesman.

26. derived or learned entirely from books: book knowledge.

27. shown on a company’s books: The firm’s book profit was $53,680.

Idioms:

1. bring to book, to bring to justice.

2. by the book, according to the correct or established form.

3. in one’s book, according to one’s personal judgment.

4. make book,

a. to take bets and give odds.

b. to wager; bet.

5. off the books, without being part of an official payroll, income report, etc.

6. one for the book(s), a noteworthy incident; something extraordinary.

7. throw the book at, Informal. to punish severely.

[before 900; Middle English, Old English bōc; c. Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old Norse bōk, Old High German buoh]

Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

Book

 collection of tablets, sheets of paper, or similar material strung or bound together.

Examples: book of beauty, 1595; of bitter passion, 1532; of gold leaf [separated by vellum leaves]; of knowledge, 1667; of love, 1592; of nature, 1830; of precepts, 1380; of scorn, 1847; of silk [bundle of skeins of raw silk].

Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

book

Past participle: booked
Gerund: booking

Imperative
book
book
Present
I book
you book
he/she/it books
we book
you book
they book
Preterite
I booked
you booked
he/she/it booked
we booked
you booked
they booked
Present Continuous
I am booking
you are booking
he/she/it is booking
we are booking
you are booking
they are booking
Present Perfect
I have booked
you have booked
he/she/it has booked
we have booked
you have booked
they have booked
Past Continuous
I was booking
you were booking
he/she/it was booking
we were booking
you were booking
they were booking
Past Perfect
I had booked
you had booked
he/she/it had booked
we had booked
you had booked
they had booked
Future
I will book
you will book
he/she/it will book
we will book
you will book
they will book
Future Perfect
I will have booked
you will have booked
he/she/it will have booked
we will have booked
you will have booked
they will have booked
Future Continuous
I will be booking
you will be booking
he/she/it will be booking
we will be booking
you will be booking
they will be booking
Present Perfect Continuous
I have been booking
you have been booking
he/she/it has been booking
we have been booking
you have been booking
they have been booking
Future Perfect Continuous
I will have been booking
you will have been booking
he/she/it will have been booking
we will have been booking
you will have been booking
they will have been booking
Past Perfect Continuous
I had been booking
you had been booking
he/she/it had been booking
we had been booking
you had been booking
they had been booking
Conditional
I would book
you would book
he/she/it would book
we would book
you would book
they would book
Past Conditional
I would have booked
you would have booked
he/she/it would have booked
we would have booked
you would have booked
they would have booked

Collins English Verb Tables © HarperCollins Publishers 2011

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun 1. book - a written work or composition that has been published (printed on pages bound together)book — a written work or composition that has been published (printed on pages bound together); «I am reading a good book on economics»

signature — a sheet with several pages printed on it; it folds to page size and is bound with other signatures to form a book

running head, running headline — a heading printed at the top of every page (or every other page) of a book

authority — an authoritative written work; «this book is the final authority on the life of Milton»

curiosa — books on strange or unusual subjects (especially erotica)

formulary, pharmacopeia — (pharmacology) a book containing a compilation of pharmaceutical products with their formulas and methods of preparation; «postexposure prophylaxis is an integral part of the pharmacopeia in preventing severe disease after acute infections»

trade book, trade edition — a book intended for general readership

bestiary — a medieval book (usually illustrated) with allegorical and amusing descriptions of real and fabled animals

catechism — an elementary book summarizing the principles of a Christian religion; written as questions and answers

pop-up, pop-up book — a book (usually for children) that contains one or more pages such that a three-dimensional structure rises up when a page is opened

storybook — a book containing a collection of stories (usually for children)

tome — a (usually) large and scholarly book

booklet, brochure, folder, pamphlet, leaflet — a small book usually having a paper cover

school text, schoolbook, text edition, textbook, text — a book prepared for use in schools or colleges; «his economics textbook is in its tenth edition»; «the professor wrote the text that he assigned students to buy»

workbook — a student’s book or booklet containing problems with spaces for solving them

copybook — a book containing models of good penmanship; used in teaching penmanship

appointment book, appointment calendar — a book containing a calendar and space to keep a record of appointments

catalog, catalogue — a book or pamphlet containing an enumeration of things; «he found it in the Sears catalog»

phrase book — a book containing common expressions in a foreign language along with their translations

playbook — a book containing the scripts of one or more dramatic plays; «the 1963 playbook leaves out the whole first scene»

prayer book, prayerbook — a book containing prayers

book of facts, reference book, reference work, reference — a book to which you can refer for authoritative facts; «he contributed articles to the basic reference work on that topic»

review copy — a copy of a newly published book that is sent for review to a writer or periodical

songbook — a book containing a collection of songs

publication — a copy of a printed work offered for distribution

yearbook — a book published annually by the graduating class of a high school or college usually containing photographs of faculty and graduating students

2. book - physical objects consisting of a number of pages bound togetherbook — physical objects consisting of a number of pages bound together; «he used a large book as a doorstop»

volume

album — a book of blank pages with pockets or envelopes; for organizing photographs or stamp collections etc

book binding, cover, binding, back — the protective covering on the front, back, and spine of a book; «the book had a leather binding»

coffee-table book — an elaborate oversize book suitable for displaying on a coffee table

folio — a book (or manuscript) consisting of large sheets of paper folded in the middle to make two leaves or four pages; «the first folio of Shakespeare’s plays»

fore edge, foredge — the part of a book that faces inward when the book is shelved; the part opposite the spine

hardback, hardcover — a book with cardboard or cloth or leather covers

journal — a record book as a physical object

novel — a printed and bound book that is an extended work of fiction; «his bookcases were filled with nothing but novels»; «he burned all the novels»

order book — a book in which customers’ orders are entered; usually makes multiple copies of the order

paperback, paperback book, paper-back book, softback, softback book, soft-cover, soft-cover book — a book with paper covers

picture book — a book consisting chiefly of pictures

product, production — an artifact that has been created by someone or some process; «they improve their product every year»; «they export most of their agricultural production»

sketch block, sketch pad, sketchbook — a book containing sheets of paper on which sketches can be drawn

backbone, spine — the part of a book’s cover that encloses the inner side of the book’s pages and that faces outward when the book is shelved; «the title and author were printed on the spine of the book»

notebook — a book with blank pages for recording notes or memoranda

3. book - a compilation of the known facts regarding something or someonebook — a compilation of the known facts regarding something or someone; «Al Smith used to say, `Let’s look at the record'»; «his name is in all the record books»

record book, record

logbook — a book in which the log is written

won-lost record — (sports) a record of win versus losses

scorecard, card — (golf) a record of scores (as in golf); «you have to turn in your card to get a handicap»

fact — a statement or assertion of verified information about something that is the case or has happened; «he supported his argument with an impressive array of facts»

4. book - a written version of a play or other dramatic compositionbook — a written version of a play or other dramatic composition; used in preparing for a performance

playscript, script

dramatic composition, dramatic work — a play for performance on the stage or television or in a movie etc.

prompt copy, promptbook — the copy of the playscript used by the prompter

continuity — a detailed script used in making a film in order to avoid discontinuities from shot to shot

dialog, dialogue — the lines spoken by characters in drama or fiction

libretto — the words of an opera or musical play

scenario — an outline or synopsis of a play (or, by extension, of a literary work)

screenplay — a script for a film including dialogue and descriptions of characters and sets

shooting script — the final detailed script for making a movie or TV program

5. book - a record in which commercial accounts are recordedbook — a record in which commercial accounts are recorded; «they got a subpoena to examine our books»

account book, book of account, ledger, leger

record — a document that can serve as legal evidence of a transaction; «they could find no record of the purchase»

cost ledger — ledger showing the accumulated costs classified in various ways

general ledger — the ledger that contains all of the financial accounts of a business; contains offsetting debit and credit accounts (including control accounts)

subsidiary ledger — details of an account supporting the amount stated in the general ledger

daybook, journal — a ledger in which transactions have been recorded as they occurred

accounting system, method of accounting, accounting — a bookkeeper’s chronological list of related debits and credits of a business; forms part of a ledger of accounts

6. book — a collection of playing cards satisfying the rules of a card game

card game, cards — a game played with playing cards

aggregation, collection, accumulation, assemblage — several things grouped together or considered as a whole

7. book - a collection of rules or prescribed standards on the basis of which decisions are madebook — a collection of rules or prescribed standards on the basis of which decisions are made; «they run things by the book around here»

rule book

prescript, rule — prescribed guide for conduct or action

rule — directions that define the way a game or sport is to be conducted; «he knew the rules of chess»

aggregation, collection, accumulation, assemblage — several things grouped together or considered as a whole

8. book - the sacred writings of Islam revealed by God to the prophet Muhammad during his life at Mecca and MedinaBook — the sacred writings of Islam revealed by God to the prophet Muhammad during his life at Mecca and Medina

al-Qur’an, Koran, Quran

sura — one of the sections (or chapters) in the Koran; «the Quran is divided in 114 suras»

9. book - the sacred writings of the Christian religionsBook — the sacred writings of the Christian religions; «he went to carry the Word to the heathen»

Bible, Christian Bible, Good Book, Holy Scripture, Holy Writ, Scripture, Word of God, Word

religious text, religious writing, sacred text, sacred writing — writing that is venerated for the worship of a deity

family Bible — a large Bible with pages to record marriages and births

Old Testament — the collection of books comprising the sacred scripture of the Hebrews and recording their history as the chosen people; the first half of the Christian Bible

Testament — either of the two main parts of the Christian Bible

New Testament — the collection of books of the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the Pauline and other epistles, and Revelation; composed soon after Christ’s death; the second half of the Christian Bible

covenant — (Bible) an agreement between God and his people in which God makes certain promises and requires certain behavior from them in return

eisegesis — personal interpretation of a text (especially of the Bible) using your own ideas

exegesis — an explanation or critical interpretation (especially of the Bible)

text — a passage from the Bible that is used as the subject of a sermon; «the preacher chose a text from Psalms to introduce his sermon»

Gabriel — (Bible) the archangel who was the messenger of God

Noachian deluge, Noah and the Flood, Noah’s flood, the Flood — (Biblical) the great deluge that is said in the Book of Genesis to have occurred in the time of Noah; it was brought by God upon the earth because of the wickedness of human beings

demythologise, demythologize — remove the mythical element from (writings); «the Bible should be demythologized and examined for its historical value»

10. book — a major division of a long written composition; «the book of Isaiah»

text, textual matter — the words of something written; «there were more than a thousand words of text»; «they handed out the printed text of the mayor’s speech»; «he wants to reconstruct the original text»

section, subdivision — a self-contained part of a larger composition (written or musical); «he always turns first to the business section»; «the history of this work is discussed in the next section»

Epistle — a book of the New Testament written in the form of a letter from an Apostle

11. book — a number of sheets (ticket or stamps etc.) bound together on one edge; «he bought a book of stamps»

product, production — an artifact that has been created by someone or some process; «they improve their product every year»; «they export most of their agricultural production»

Verb 1. book — engage for a performance; «Her agent had booked her for several concerts in Tokyo»

schedule — plan for an activity or event; «I’ve scheduled a concert next week»

2. book — arrange for and reserve (something for someone else) in advance; «reserve me a seat on a flight»; «The agent booked tickets to the show for the whole family»; «please hold a table at Maxim’s»

reserve, hold

call for, request, bespeak, quest — express the need or desire for; ask for; «She requested an extra bed in her room»; «She called for room service»

reserve — obtain or arrange (for oneself) in advance; «We managed to reserve a table at Maxim’s»

hold open, keep open, save, keep — retain rights to; «keep my job for me while I give birth»; «keep my seat, please»; «keep open the possibility of a merger»

3. book — record a charge in a police register; «The policeman booked her when she tried to solicit a man»

record, enter, put down — make a record of; set down in permanent form

fine, ticket — issue a ticket or a fine to as a penalty; «I was fined for parking on the wrong side of the street»; «Move your car or else you will be ticketed!»

4. book — register in a hotel booker

register — record in writing; enter into a book of names or events or transactions

Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

book

noun

1. work, title, guide, volume, publication, companion, manual, paperback, textbook, tract, hardback, tome, treatise a book about witches

2. notebook, album, journal, diary, pad, record book, Filofax (trademark), notepad, exercise book, jotter, memorandum book I had several names in my little black book that I called regularly.

verb

2. charge They took him to the police station and booked him for assault.

book in register, enter, enrol He was happy to book in at the Royal Pavilion Hotel.

Quotations
«A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life» [John Milton Areopagitica]
«All books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time» [John Ruskin Sesame and Lilies]
«There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written» [Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray]
«Style and Structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash» [Vladimir Nabokov]
«All books are either dreams or swords,»
«You can cut, or you can drug, with words» [Amy Lowell Sword Blades and Poppy Seeds]
«Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested» [Francis Bacon Essays]
«The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries» [René Descartes Discourse on Method]
«All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened» [Ernest Hemingway]
«Books succeed,»
«And lives fail» [Elizabeth Barrett Browning Aurora Leigh]
«Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren’t» [Julian Barnes Flaubert’s Parrot]
«Even bad books are books and therefore sacred» [Günter Grass The Tin Drum]

Books

Types of book  album, almanac, anatomy, annual, anthology, armorial, A to Z, atlas, autobiography, Baedeker, bestiary, bibelot, Bible, biography, breviary, brochure, casebook, catalogue, catechism, coffee-table book, comic book, commonplace book, companion, compendium, concordance, confessional, cookery book, copybook, diary, dictionary, directory, dispensatory, encyclopedia or encyclopaedia, exercise book, formulary, gazetteer, gradus, grammar, graphic novel, grimoire, guidebook, handbook, hymn book, jotter, journal, lectionary, ledger, lexicon, log or logbook, manual, miscellany, missal, monograph, notebook, novel, novelette, novella, ordinal, peerage, pharmacopoeia, phrase book, prayer book, primer, prospectus, psalter, reader, reference book, register, road book, score, scrapbook, service book, sketchbook, song book, speller, statute book, storybook, telephone directory, textbook, thesaurus, vade mecum, who’s who, wordbook, workbook, yearbook

Parts of a book  acknowledgments, addendum, afterword, appendix, back, back matter, bibliography, binding, blurb, chapter, contents, corrigenda, cover, dedication, dust jacket or cover, endpaper, epigraph, epilogue, errata, flyleaf, folio, fore-edge, foreword, frontispiece, front matter, glossary, gutter, half-title, illustration, index, interleaf, introduction, leaf, margin, page, plate, postscript, preface, prelims, proem, prolegomenon, prologue, recto, rubric, running head, slipcase, spine, tail, title page, verso, wrapper

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

book

noun

A printed and bound work:

verb

1. To register in or as if in a book:

2. To cause to be set aside, as for one’s use, in advance:

The American Heritage® Roget’s Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Translations

يَحْجِزُيَسْتَأْجِرُ سَلَفـادَفْتَر تَسْجيل المُراهَناتكتابكِتَاب

запазвамкнига

kniharezervovatzarezervovatsešitúhrn sázek

bogreserverespilleregnskabbookekøbe/bestille billet

librorezervi

raamat

kirjakirjanpitokirjatalibrettosähköinen kirja

knjigapredbilježitirezerviratibukirati

könyvelõjegyez

bukukitabpesan

bókbóka, pantataka fráveîmálaskrá

予約する

예약하다

codexliber

knygaknygrišybaknygrišysknygų graužikasknygų lentyna

grāmataiepriekš pasūtīt/nopirktpasūtīt iepriekšsējumsburtnīca

carte

knihastávky

knjigarazprodanrezerviratizasedenalbum

bokbokabokförabokföringhäfte

kitabu

จองหนังสือ

kitapmüşterek bahis kayıt defterireservasyontutmakyer ayırma

sáchsổtậpđặt chỗphạt

book

[bʊk]

B. VT

2. (= arrange) [+ appointment, time] → pedir
I’ve booked an appointment with the dentisthe pedido hora con el dentista
can we book a time to meet soon?¿podemos quedar un día de éstos?

3. (= engage) [+ performer, artiste] → contratar

5. (= note down) [+ order] → anotar

book in (Brit)

book up VT + ADV (esp Brit)

Collins Spanish Dictionary — Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

book

vibestellen; (= reserve seat, room also)buchen; to book through to Hullbis Hull durchlösen


book

:

book claim

n (Fin) → Buchforderung f, → buchmäßige Forderung


book

:

book knowledge, book-learning


book

:

bookmaking

nBuchmacherei f; book firmBuchmacherfirma f

bookmobile

n (US) → Fahrbücherei f

book post

nBüchersendung f; to send something by booketw als Büchersendung schicken; book is …Büchersendungen sind …

bookshop (esp Brit), bookstore (US)

bookstall

nBücherstand m

bookstand

n (US)

(= bookstall: in station, airport) → Bücherstand m; to hit the booksin die Buchläden kommen


book

:

book token

nBuchgutschein m

book value

n (Fin) → Buchwert m, → Bilanzwert m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

book

[bʊk]

3. vi (see vt a) → prenotare; (prendere il biglietto)

book in

2. vt + adv (person) → prenotare (una camera) per

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

book

(buk) noun

1. a number of sheets of paper (especially printed) bound together. an exercise book.

2. a piece of writing, bound and covered. I’ve written a book on Shakespeare.

3. a record of bets.

verb

1. to buy or reserve (a ticket, seat etc) for a play etc. I’ve booked four seats for Friday’s concert.

2. to hire in advance. We’ve booked the hall for Saturday.

ˈbookable adjective

able to be reserved in advance. Are these seats bookable?

ˈbooking noun

a reservation.

ˈbooklet (-lit) noun

a small, thin book. a booklet about the history of the town.

ˈbookbinding noun

putting the covers on books.

ˈbookbinder nounˈbookcase noun

a set of shelves for books.

ˈbooking-office noun

an office where travel tickets etc are sold. a queue at the station booking-office.

ˈbookmaker noun

a professional betting man who takes bets and pays winnings.

ˈbookmark noun

something put in a book to mark a particular page.

ˈbookseller noun

a person who sells books.

ˈbookshelf noun

a shelf on which books are kept.

ˈbookshop noun

a shop which sells books.

ˈbookworm noun

a person who reads a lot.

booked up

having every ticket sold. The theatre is booked up for the season.

book in

to sign one’s name on the list of guests at an hotel etc. We have booked in at the Royal Hotel.

by the book

strictly according to the rules. She always does things by the book.

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.

book

كِتَاب, يَحْجِزُ kniha, rezervovat bog, booke Buch, buchen βιβλίο, κάνω κράτηση libro, reservar kirja, varata livre, réserver knjiga, rezervirati libro, prenotare 予約する, 本 예약하다, 책 boek, boeken bestille, bok książka, zarezerwować livro, reservar бронировать, книга bok, boka จอง, หนังสือ kitap, yer ayırtmak đặt chỗ, sách, 预订

Multilingual Translator © HarperCollins Publishers 2009

English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

  • A book of tickets, please
  • I want to reserve a sleeper to … (US)
    I want to book a sleeper to … (UK)
  • I want to reserve a seat in a non-smoking compartment (US)
    I want to book a seat in a non-smoking compartment (UK)
  • I’d like to reserve a single room (US)
    I’d like to book a single room (UK)
  • I’d like to reserve a double room (US)
    I’d like to book a double room (UK)
  • I’d like to reserve a family room (US)
    I’d like to book a family room (UK)
  • Do you have a guide book in English?
  • Do you have a guide book in …?
  • Could you reserve the tickets for us? (US)
    Can you book the tickets for us? (UK)
  • Do I need to reserve in advance? (US)
    Do I need to book in advance? (UK)
  • Could you make a hotel reservation for me? (US)
    Can you book me into a hotel? (UK)
  • Where can I reserve a court? (US)
    Where can I book a court? (UK)
  • I’d like to reserve a table for three people for tonight (US)
    I’d like to book a table for three people for tonight (UK)
  • I’d like to reserve a table for two people for tomorrow night (US)
    I’d like to book a table for two people for tomorrow night (UK)
  • I’d like to reserve a table for four people for tonight at eight o’clock (US)
    I’d like to book a table for four people for tonight at eight o’clock (UK)

Collins Multilingual Translator © HarperCollins Publishers 2009

  • Top Definitions
  • Synonyms
  • Quiz
  • Related Content
  • Examples
  • British
  • Idioms And Phrases

This shows grade level based on the word’s complexity.

This shows grade level based on the word’s complexity.


noun

a handwritten or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers.

a work of fiction or nonfiction in an electronic format: Your child can listen to or read the book online.See also e-book (def. 1).

a number of sheets of blank or ruled paper bound together for writing, recording business transactions, etc.

a division of a literary work, especially one of the larger divisions.

the Book, the Bible.

Music. the text or libretto of an opera, operetta, or musical.

Jazz. the total repertoire of a band.

a script or story for a play.

a record of bets, as on a horse race.

Cards. the number of basic tricks or cards that must be taken before any trick or card counts in the score.

a set or packet of tickets, checks, stamps, matches, etc., bound together like a book.

anything that serves for the recording of facts or events: The petrified tree was a book of Nature.

Sports. a collection of facts and information about the usual playing habits, weaknesses, methods, etc., of an opposing team or player, especially in baseball: The White Sox book on Mickey Mantle cautioned pitchers to keep the ball fast and high.

Stock Exchange.

  1. the customers served by each registered representative in a brokerage house.
  2. a loose-leaf binder kept by a specialist to record orders to buy and sell stock at specified prices.

a pile or package of leaves, as of tobacco.

Mineralogy. a thick block or crystal of mica.

a magazine: used especially in magazine publishing.

the book,

  1. a set of rules, conventions, or standards: The solution was not according to the book but it served the purpose.
  2. the telephone book: I’ve looked him up, but he’s not in the book.

verb (used with object)

to enter in a book or list; record; register.

to reserve or make a reservation for (a hotel room, passage on a ship, etc.): We booked a table at our favorite restaurant.

to register or list (a person) for a place, transportation, appointment, etc.: The travel agent booked us for next week’s cruise.

to engage for one or more performances.

to enter an official charge against (an arrested suspect) on a police register.

to act as a bookmaker for (a bettor, bet, or sum of money): The Philadelphia syndicate books 25 million dollars a year on horse racing.

verb (used without object)

to register one’s name.

to engage a place, services, etc.

Slang.

  1. to study hard, as a student before an exam: He left the party early to book.
  2. to leave; depart: I’m bored with this party, let’s book.
  3. to work as a bookmaker: He started a restaurant with money he got from booking.

adjective

of or relating to a book or books: the book department;a book salesman.

derived or learned from or based on books: a book knowledge of sailing.

shown by a book of account: The firm’s book profit was $53,680.

Verb Phrases

book in, to sign in, as at a job.

book out, to sign out, as at a job.

book up, to sell out in advance: The hotel is booked up for the Christmas holidays.

QUIZ

CAN YOU ANSWER THESE COMMON GRAMMAR DEBATES?

There are grammar debates that never die; and the ones highlighted in the questions in this quiz are sure to rile everyone up once again. Do you know how to answer the questions that cause some of the greatest grammar debates?

Which sentence is correct?

Idioms about book

    book it, Slang. See entry at book it.

    bring to book, to call to account; bring to justice: Someday he will be brought to book for his misdeeds.

    by the book, according to the correct or established form; in the usual manner: an unimaginative individual who does everything by the book.

    close the books, to balance accounts at the end of an accounting period; settle accounts.

    in one’s bad books, out of favor; disliked by someone: He’s in the boss’s bad books.

    in one’s book, in one’s personal judgment or opinion: In my book, he’s not to be trusted.

    in one’s good books, in favor; liked by someone.

    like a book, completely; thoroughly: She knew the area like a book.

    make book,

    1. to accept or place the bets of others, as on horse races, especially as a business.
    2. to wager; bet: You can make book on it that he won’t arrive in time.

    off the books, done or performed for cash or without keeping full business records: especially as a way to avoid paying income tax, employment benefits, etc.: Much of his work as a night watchman is done off the books.

    one for the book / books, a noteworthy incident; something extraordinary: The daring rescue was one for the book.

    on the books, entered in a list or record: He claims to have graduated from Harvard, but his name is not on the books.

    throw the book at, Informal.

    1. to sentence (an offender, lawbreaker, etc.) to the maximum penalties for all charges against that person.
    2. to punish or chide severely.

    without book,

    1. from memory.
    2. without authority: to punish without book.

    write the book, to be the prototype, originator, leader, etc., of: So far as investment banking is concerned, they wrote the book.

Origin of book

First recorded before 900; Middle English, Old English bōc; cognate with Dutch boek, Old Norse bōk, German Buch; akin to Gothic boka “letter (of the alphabet)” and not of known relation to beech, as is often assumed

OTHER WORDS FROM book

book·less, adjectivebook·like, adjectivepre·book, verbre·book, verb

un·booked, adjective

Words nearby book

boohai, boohoo, boo-hurrah theory, boojie, boojum tree, book, book bag, bookbinder, bookbindery, bookbinding, book burning

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Words related to book

album, booklet, brochure, copy, dictionary, edition, essay, fiction, magazine, manual, novel, pamphlet, paperback, publication, text, textbook, tome, volume, work, writing

How to use book in a sentence

  • She waited for my rant to finish and then reminded me that the book, still in my hand, was one I had pulled from her own bookshelf.

  • I defy you to read the book—or, worse, review the Twitter commentary about it—and come away feeling good about the prospects for American comity.

  • Such deals aren’t typically part of Warren Buffett’s play book, although in 2018 Berkshire invested in the initial offering of Brazilian fintech StoneCo Ltd.

  • On the other side, in March everyone who booked a trip cancelled it.

  • More than two decades ago, I wrote a book with my New York Times colleagues Judith Miller and Bill Broad called “Germs” that looked at the modern history of biological warfare.

  • Yet this, in the end, is a book from which one emerges sad, gloomy, disenchanted, at least if we agree to take it seriously.

  • Submission is less a novel of ideas than a political book, and of the most subversive kind.

  • Her latest book, Heretic: The Case for a Muslim Reformation, will be published in April by HarperCollins.

  • At some point during his busy schedule, Israel found the time to write a book, titled The Global War on Morris.

  • My publisher had asked, “If you wanted to write another book, what would you want to write about?”

  • The supernaturalist alleges that religion was revealed to man by God, and that the form of this revelation is a sacred book.

  • But Mrs. Dodd, the present vicar’s wife, retained the precious prerogative of choosing the book to be read at the monthly Dorcas.

  • A small book, bound in full purple calf, lay half hidden in a nest of fine tissue paper on the dressing-table.

  • She did not need a great cook-book; She knew how much and what it took To make things good and sweet and light.

  • Again the sallow fingers began to play with the book-covers, passing from one to another, but always slowly and gently.

British Dictionary definitions for book


noun

a number of printed or written pages bound together along one edge and usually protected by thick paper or stiff pasteboard coversSee also hardback, paperback

  1. a written work or composition, such as a novel, technical manual, or dictionary
  2. (as modifier)the book trade; book reviews
  3. (in combination)bookseller; bookshop; bookshelf; bookrack

a number of blank or ruled sheets of paper bound together, used to record lessons, keep accounts, etc

(plural) a record of the transactions of a business or society

the script of a play or the libretto of an opera, musical, etc

a major division of a written composition, as of a long novel or of the Bible

a number of tickets, sheets, stamps, etc, fastened together along one edge

bookmaking a record of the bets made on a horse race or other event

(in card games) the number of tricks that must be taken by a side or player before any trick has a scoring valuein bridge, six of the 13 tricks form the book

strict or rigid regulations, rules, or standards (esp in the phrases according to the book, by the book)

a source of knowledge or authoritythe book of life

a telephone directory (in the phrase in the book)

the book (sometimes capital) the Bible

an open book a person or subject that is thoroughly understood

a closed book a person or subject that is unknown or beyond comprehensionchemistry is a closed book to him

bring to book to reprimand or require (someone) to give an explanation of his conduct

close the book on to bring to a definite endwe have closed the book on apartheid

close the books accounting to balance accounts in order to prepare a statement or report

cook the books informal to make fraudulent alterations to business or other accounts

in my book according to my view of things

in someone’s bad books regarded by someone with disfavour

in someone’s good books regarded by someone with favour

keep the books to keep written records of the finances of a business or other enterprise

on the books

  1. enrolled as a member
  2. registered or recorded

read someone like a book to understand a person, or his motives, character, etc, thoroughly and clearly

throw the book at

  1. to charge with every relevant offence
  2. to inflict the most severe punishment on

verb

to reserve (a place, passage, etc) or engage the services of (a performer, driver, etc) in advanceto book a flight; to book a band

(tr) to take the name and address of (a person guilty of a minor offence) with a view to bringing a prosecutionhe was booked for ignoring a traffic signal

(tr) (of a football referee) to take the name of (a player) who grossly infringes the rules while playing, two such acts resulting in the player’s dismissal from the field

(tr) archaic to record in a book

Word Origin for book

Old English bōc; related to Old Norse bōk, Old High German buoh book, Gothic bōka letter; see beech (the bark of which was used as a writing surface)

Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with book


see balance the books; black book; bring to book; by the book; closed book; close the books; cook the books; crack a book; hit the books; in one’s book; in someone’s bad graces (books); judge a book by its cover; know like a book; make book; nose in a book; one for the books; open book; take a leaf out of someone’s book; throw the book at; wrote the book on.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

examples:

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Book of Genesis

the first book of the Old Testament: tells of Creation; Adam and Eve; the Fall of Man; Cain and Abel; Noah and the flood; God’s covenant with Abraham; Abraham and Isaac; Jacob and Esau; Joseph and his brothers

Book of Exodus

the second book of the Old Testament: tells of the departure of the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt led by Moses; God gave them the Ten Commandments and the rest of Mosaic law on Mount Sinai during the Exodus

Book of Leviticus

the third book of the Old Testament; contains Levitical law and ritual precedents

Book of Numbers

the fourth book of the Old Testament; contains a record of the number of Israelites who followed Moses out of Egypt

Book of Deuteronomy

the fifth book of the Old Testament; contains a second statement of Mosaic law

Book of Joshua

a book in the Old Testament describing how Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan (the Promised Land) after the death of Moses

Book of Judges

a book of the Old Testament that tells the history of Israel under the leaders known as judges

Book of Ruth

a book of the Old Testament that tells the story of Ruth who was not an Israelite but who married an Israelite and who stayed with her mother-in-law Naomi after her husband died

1 Samuel

the first of two books in the Old Testament that tell of Saul and David

II Samuel

the second of two books of the Old Testament that tell of Saul and David

1 Kings

the first of two Old Testament books telling the histories of the kings of Judah and Israel

II Kings

the second of two Old Testament books telling the histories of the kings of Judah and Israel

1 Chronicles

the first of two Old Testament books telling the history of Judah and Israel until the return from the Babylonian Captivity in 536 BC

II Chronicles

the second of two Old Testament books telling the history of Judah and Israel until the return from the Babylonian Captivity in 536 BC

Book of Ezra

an Old Testament book telling of a rabbi’s efforts in the 5th century BC to reconstitute Jewish law and worship in Jerusalem after the Babylonian Captivity

Book of Nehemiah

an Old Testament book telling how a Jewish official at the court of Artaxerxes I in 444 BC became a leader in rebuilding Jerusalem after the Babylonian Captivity

Book of Esther

an Old Testament book telling of a beautiful Jewess who became queen of Persia and saved her people from massacre

Book of Job

a book in the Old Testament containing Job’s pleas to God about his afflictions and God’s reply

Book of Psalms

an Old Testament book consisting of a collection of 150 Psalms

Book of Proverbs

an Old Testament book consisting of proverbs from various Israeli sages (including Solomon)

Book of Ecclesiastes

an Old Testament book consisting of reflections on the vanity of human life; is traditionally attributed to Solomon but probably was written about 250 BC

Canticle of Canticles

an Old Testament book consisting of a collection of love poems traditionally attributed to Solomon but actually written much later

Book of Isaiah

an Old Testament book consisting of Isaiah’s prophecies

Book of Jeremiah

a book in the Old Testament containing the oracles of the prophet Jeremiah

Book of Lamentations

an Old Testament book lamenting the desolation of Judah after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC; traditionally attributed to the prophet Jeremiah

Book of Ezekiel

an Old Testament book containing Ezekiel’s prophecies of the downfall of Jerusalem and Judah and their subsequent restoration

Book of the Prophet Daniel

an Old Testament book that tells of the apocalyptic visions and the experiences of Daniel in the court of Nebuchadnezzar

Book of Hosea

an Old Testament book telling Hosea’s prophecies

Book of Joel

an Old Testament book telling Joel’s prophecies

Book of Amos

an Old Testament book telling Amos’s prophecies

Book of Obadiah

an Old Testament book telling Obadiah’s prophecies; the shortest book in the Christian Bible

Book of Jonah

a book in the Old Testament that tells the story of Jonah and the whale

Book of Micah

an Old Testament book telling the prophecies of Micah foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem

Book of Nahum

an Old Testament book telling Nahum’s prophecy of the fall of Nineveh

Book of Habakkuk

an Old Testament book telling Habakkuk’s prophecies

Book of Zephaniah

an Old Testament book telling the prophecies of Zephaniah which are concerned mainly with the approaching judgment by God upon the sinners of Judah

Book of Haggai

an Old Testament book telling the prophecies of Haggai which are concerned mainly with rebuilding the temples after the Babylonian Captivity

Book of Zachariah

an Old Testament book telling the prophecies of Zechariah which are concerned mainly with the renewal of Israel after the Babylonian Captivity

Book of Malachi

an Old Testament book containing the prophecies of Malachi

Gospel According to Matthew

one of the Gospels in the New Testament; includes the Sermon on the Mount

Gospel According to Mark

the shortest of the four Gospels in the New Testament

Gospel According to Luke

one of the four Gospels in the New Testament; contains details of Jesus’s birth and early life

Gospel According to John

the last of the four Gospels in the New Testament

Acts of the Apostles

a New Testament book describing the development of the early church from Christ’s Ascension to Paul’s sojourn at Rome

Revelation of Saint John the Divine

the last book of the New Testament; contains visionary descriptions of heaven and of conflicts between good and evil and of the end of the world; attributed to Saint John the Apostle

Additions to Esther

an Apocryphal book consisting of text added to the Book of Esther

Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Children

an Apocryphal book consisting of text added to the Book of Daniel

Book of Susanna

an Apocryphal book consisting of text added to the Book of Daniel

Bel and the Dragon

an Apocryphal book consisting of text added to the Book of Daniel

Book of Baruch

an Apocryphal book ascribed to Baruch

Epistle of Jeremiah

an Apocryphal book consisting of a letter ascribed to Jeremiah to the Jews in exile in Babylon warning them against idolatry

Book of Tobit

an Apocryphal book that was a popular novel for several centuries

Book of Judith

an Apocryphal book telling how Judith saved her people

1 Esdras

an Apocryphal book consisting of a compilation from I Chronicles and II Chronicles and Ezra and Nehemiah

II Esdras

an Apocryphal book of angelic revelations

Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach

an Apocryphal book mainly of maxims (resembling Proverbs in that respect)

Wisdom of Solomon

an Apocryphal book consisting mainly of a meditation on wisdom; although ascribed to Solomon it was probably written in the first century BC

1 Maccabees

an Apocryphal book describing the life of Judas Maccabaeus

II Maccabees

an Apocryphal book describing the life of Judas Maccabaeus

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A book is a set of printed sheets of paper held together between two covers. The sheets of paper in a book are called pages. The pages have words written in them and illustrations drawn. The book is a more flexible format than the earlier idea of the scroll. The change from scrolls to books began in the Roman Empire and took many centuries to become complete.

A writer of a book is called an author. Someone who draws the pictures in a book is called an illustrator. Books can have more than one author or illustrator.

A book can be a text that is a part of a larger collection of texts. A section of a text may be published as a book so that it only has one author or only focus on one subject area. Books written in this way can be understood without reading whole collection of writings. Examples are the Iliad, Odyssey, Bible, Quran and Torah. All of them consist of a number of “religious books” in this sense of the word. Encyclopedias often have separate articles written by different people, and are published as separate volumes. Each volume is a book.

Hardcover books have hard covers made of cardboard that is covered in cloth or leather and sewn together. Paperback books have covers made of stiff paper that is glued together. A small book is a «booklet» and may be stapled together. The words in books can be read aloud and recorded. These are called «audiobooks».

Books may be borrowed from a library or bought from a bookstore. People can make their own books and write in them, and add family photos and drawings. Some books are empty inside, like a diary, an address book, or photo album. These books are meant to be written in. Usually, the word «book» means that the pages inside have words, and often pictures.

Some books are written just for children. Some are for entertainment, and some are textbooks for studying something in school, such as math or history.

Etymology[change | change source]

The word book comes from Old English bōc, which in turn comes from the Germanic root *bōk-, cognate to ‘beech’.[1] In Slavic languages like Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian буква bukva—’letter’ is cognate with ‘beech’. In Russian, Serbian and Macedonian, the word букварь (bukvar’) or буквар (bukvar) refers to a primary school textbook that helps young children master the techniques of reading and writing. It is thus conjectured that the earliest Indo-European writings may have been carved on beech wood.[2] The Latin word codex, meaning a book in the modern sense (bound and with separate leaves), originally meant ‘block of wood’.[3]

Content of books[change | change source]

There are two main kinds of book text: fiction and non-fiction.

Fiction[change | change source]

These books are novels and short stories. They are stories that have not happened, and have been imagined by the author. Some books are based on real events from history, but the author created imaginary characters or dialogue for the events.

Non-fiction[change | change source]

Non-fiction fiction are about true facts or things that have really happened. Some examples are dictionaries, cookbooks, textbooks for learning in school, or a biography (someone’s life story).

Historical[change | change source]

A Torah is a kind of scroll still used today.

Between the written manuscript and the book are several inventions. While manuscripts are hand-made, books are now industrial products.

Manuscripts[change | change source]

A common type of manuscript was the scroll. It is a long sheet that is rolled up. The sheet could have been made of papyrus (made by the Egyptians, by weaving the inner stems of the papyrus plant and then hammering them together), or parchment or vellum (very thin animal skin, first used by the ancient Greeks), or paper (made from plant fibers, invented by the Chinese). Manuscripts of this kind lasted to the 16th century and beyond. Turning the manuscript into a book required several developments.

The codex[change | change source]

The Romans were the first people to put separate pieces of manuscript between covers, to form a codex. This was more convenient to handle and store than scrolls, but was not yet a book as we understand it.

Printing[change | change source]

Scrolls and codices were written and copied by hand. The Chinese invented woodblock printing, where shapes are carved out of a block of wood, then ink is applied to the carved side, and the block is pressed onto paper. This woodcut method was slow because the symbols and pictures were made by cutting away the surrounding wood.

Johannes Gutenberg was the first person to invent a machine for printing, called the printing press. He made it in the 15th century. This involved more than just a press because it involved the production of a movable metal type that was suitable for the machine process.

Initially, the machines were slow, and needed a muscle power to work. The Industrial Revolution brought steam power, and later electrification.[4][5][6]

Paper and ink[change | change source]

Paper had been invented in China in the 8th century, but it was kept secret for a long time. In Europe hand-made paper was available from about 1450. It was cheaper than parchment but still expensive, and the early printing was a slow process. Therefore, books remained rare. In 1800 the first machines for making paper from wood pulp were invented. New kinds of inks were also invented for various purposes, and machines were driven by steam engines and later by electricity.[7]

The common cheap supply of paper fed the faster printing machines, and books became cheaper. At the same time, in America, Britain and continental Europe, more people learnt to read. So, in the 19th century, many ordinary people could afford to buy books and could actually read them. Also in the 19th century came public libraries, so poorer people could get access to the best books.[8]

Binding[change | change source]

Printing was done on large sheets of paper, which were then folded, guillotined (cut) and sewn into the covers. Bookbinding and all the other processes have been done by machines since the 19th century.

Now[change | change source]

Today, some of the technologies have been changed, especially those involving illustration and typography. However, books look much the same as they did, with more illustration in color, but basically the same. That is because experience has shown that readers need certain things for pleasurable reading. Graphic design and typography are the practical arts used to make books attractive and useful to readers.

[change | change source]

  • Author
  • Bible
  • Literature
  • Notebook
  • Page
  • Reading

References[change | change source]

  1. «Book». Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on November 3, 2010. Retrieved November 6, 2010.
  2. «Northvegr – Holy Language Lexicon». November 3, 2008. Archived from the original on November 3, 2008. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
  3. «codex». Oxford Reference. Archived from the original on May 9, 2022. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
  4. Lefebre L & Martin H-J. 1990. The coming of the book. new ed, London.
  5. Chappell W. & Bringhurst R. A short history of the printed word. Hartley & Marks, Vancouver.
  6. Moran, James 1971. The development of the printing press. Royal Society of Arts.
  7. Twyman, Michael 1970. Printing 1770–1970: an illustrated history of its development and uses in England. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.
  8. Altick R.D. 1957. The English common reader: a social history of the mass reading public 1800–1900. University of Chicago Press.

Other websites[change | change source]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Book.

  • WikiHow article on How to read a Book
  • Google Book Search (Beta)
  • Bestseller list of all times Archived 2011-02-02 at the Wayback Machine
  • Book -Citizendium

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English bok, from Old English bōc; see bhāgo- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps shortening and alteration (influenced by book) of boogie.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English book, from Old English bōc, first and third person singular preterite of bacan («to bake»). Cognate with Scots beuk («baked»), German buk («baked») and probably Albanian bukë («bread, baked dough»). More at bake

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English book, from Old English bōc («a book, a document, register, catalog, a legal document, a bill of divorce, a charter, a title deed, conveyance, a volume, literary work, pages, main division of a work»), from Proto-Germanic *bōks (“beech, book”), from Proto-Indo-European *bheh₁g̑ós (“beech”), *bʰeh₂ǵos.

  • Defenition of the word book

    • The sacred writings of the Christian religions.
    • A collection of sheets of paper bound together to hinge at one edge, containing printed or written material, pictures, etc.
    • Part of a larger published work.
    • To record in a register.
    • To arrange for (something for someone else) in advance.
    • To engage for a performance.
    • a number sheets (ticket or stamps etc.) bound together on one edge; «he bought a book of stamps»
    • a major division of a long written composition; «the book of Isaiah»
    • a copy of a written work or composition that has been published (printed on pages bound together); «I am reading a good book on economics»
    • engage for a performance; «Her agent had booked her for several concerts in Tokyo»
    • record a charge in a police register; «The policeman booked her when she tried to solicit a man»
    • register in a hotel booker
    • a book as a physical object: a number of pages bound together; «he used a large book as a doorstop»
    • an accounting book as a physical object: «he bought a new daybook»
    • a record in which commercial accounts are recorded; «they got a subpoena to examine our books»
    • a compilation of the known facts regarding something or someone; «Al Smith used to say, `Let’s look at the record'»; «his name is in all the recordbooks»
    • arrange for and reserve in advance; «reserve a seat on a flight»; «We booked tickets to the show»; «please hold a table at Maxim’s»
    • a written version of a play or other dramatic composition; used in preparing for a performance
    • physical objects consisting of a number of pages bound together; «he used a large book as a doorstop»
    • a number of sheets (ticket or stamps etc.) bound together on one edge; «he bought a book of stamps»
    • a written work or composition that has been published (printed on pages bound together); «I am reading a good book on economics»
    • the sacred writings of the Christian religions; «he went to carry the Word to the heathen»
    • the sacred writings of Islam revealed by God to the prophet Muhammad during his life at Mecca and Medina
    • a compilation of the known facts regarding something or someone; «Al Smith used to say, `Let»s look at the record»»; «his name is in all the recordbooks»
    • a collection of rules or prescribed standards on the basis of which decisions are made; «they run things by the book around here»
    • arrange for and reserve (something for someone else) in advance; «reserve me a seat on a flight»; «The agent booked tickets to the show for the whole family»; «please hold a table at Maxim»s»
    • physical objects consisting of a number of pages bound together
    • a number of sheets (ticket or stamps etc.) bound together on one edge
    • a major division of a long written composition
    • a written work or composition that has been published (printed on pages bound together)
    • the sacred writings of the Christian religions
    • a compilation of the known facts regarding something or someone
    • a collection of rules or prescribed standards on the basis of which decisions are made
    • a collection of playing cards satisfying the rules of a card game
    • a record in which commercial accounts are recorded
    • engage for a performance
    • record a charge in a police register
    • arrange for and reserve (something for someone else) in advance

Synonyms for the word book

    • account book
    • al-qur’an
    • bible
    • book of account
    • charge
    • christian bible
    • daybook
    • good book
    • hardback
    • hold
    • holy scripture
    • holy writ
    • koran
    • ledger
    • leger
    • manuscript
    • order
    • paperback
    • playscript
    • put your name down for
    • quran
    • record
    • record book
    • recordbook
    • report
    • reserve
    • rule book
    • script
    • scripture
    • sign up
    • tome
    • volume
    • word
    • word of god

Similar words in the book

    • book
    • book’s
    • bookcase
    • bookcase’s
    • bookcases
    • bookend
    • bookended
    • bookending
    • bookends
    • booker
    • booker’s
    • bookie
    • bookie’s
    • bookies
    • bookings
    • bookish
    • bookkeeper
    • bookkeeper’s
    • bookkeepers
    • bookkeeping
    • bookkeeping’s
    • booklets
    • bookmaker
    • bookmaker’s
    • bookmakers
    • bookmaking
    • bookmaking’s
    • bookmark
    • bookmark’s
    • bookmarks
    • bookmobile
    • bookmobile’s
    • bookmobiles
    • books
    • bookseller
    • bookseller’s
    • booksellers
    • bookshelf
    • bookshelf’s
    • bookshelves
    • bookstore’s
    • bookstores
    • bookworm
    • bookworm’s
    • bookworms

Meronymys for the word book

    • accounting
    • accounting system
    • back
    • binding
    • book binding
    • cover
    • method of accounting
    • running head
    • running headline
    • signature
    • text
    • textual matter

Hyponyms for the word book

    • 1 Chronicles
    • 1 Esdras
    • 1 Kings
    • 1 Maccabees
    • 1 Samuel
    • 2 Chronicles
    • 2 Esdras
    • 2 Kings
    • 2 Maccabees
    • 2 Samuel
    • Abdias
    • Acts
    • Acts of the Apostles
    • Additions to Esther
    • Aggeus
    • album
    • American Revised Version
    • American Standard Version
    • Amos
    • Apocalypse
    • appointment book
    • appointment calendar
    • authority
    • Authorized Version
    • Baruch
    • Bel and the Dragon
    • Ben Sira
    • bestiary
    • Book of Amos
    • Book of Baruch
    • Book of Daniel
    • Book of Deuteronomy
    • Book of Ecclesiastes
    • Book of Esther
    • Book of Exodus
    • Book of Ezekiel
    • Book of Ezra
    • book of facts
    • Book of Genesis
    • Book of Habakkuk
    • Book of Haggai
    • Book of Hosea
    • Book of Isaiah
    • Book of Jeremiah
    • Book of Job
    • Book of Joel
    • Book of Jonah
    • Book of Joshua
    • Book of Judges
    • Book of Judith
    • Book of Lamentations
    • Book of Leviticus
    • Book of Malachi
    • Book of Micah
    • Book of Nahum
    • Book of Nehemiah
    • Book of Numbers
    • Book of Obadiah
    • Book of Proverbs
    • Book of Psalms
    • Book of Revelation
    • Book of Ruth
    • Book of Susanna
    • Book of the Prophet Daniel
    • Book of Tobit
    • Book of Zachariah
    • Book of Zephaniah
    • booklet
    • brochure
    • Canticle of Canticles
    • Canticles
    • Capital
    • card
    • catalog
    • catalogue
    • catechism
    • coffee-table book
    • Colossians
    • continuity
    • copybook
    • cost ledger
    • curiosa
    • Daniel
    • Das Kapital
    • daybook
    • Deuteronomy
    • dialog
    • dialogue
    • Douay Bible
    • Douay Version
    • Douay-Rheims Bible
    • Douay-Rheims Version
    • Ecclesiastes
    • Ecclesiasticus
    • Ephesians
    • epistle
    • Epistle of James
    • Epistle of Jeremiah
    • Epistle of Jude
    • Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Philemon
    • Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Colossians
    • Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians
    • Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians
    • Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians
    • Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans
    • Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Titus
    • Epistle to Philemon
    • Epistle to the Colossians
    • Epistle to the Ephesians
    • Epistle to the Galatians
    • Epistle to the Hebrews
    • Epistle to the Philippians
    • Epistle to the Romans
    • Epistle to Titus
    • Esther
    • Exodus
    • Ezechiel
    • Ezekiel
    • Ezra
    • family Bible
    • fine
    • First Epistle of John
    • First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthia
    • First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalon
    • First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy
    • First Epistle of Peter
    • First Epistle to the Corinthians
    • First Epistle to the Thessalonians
    • First Epistle to Timothy
    • folder
    • folio
    • formulary
    • Galatians
    • general ledger
    • Genesis
    • Gospel According to John
    • Gospel According to Luke
    • Gospel According to Mark
    • Gospel According to Matthew
    • Gospel of Luke
    • Habacuc
    • Habakkuk
    • Haggai
    • hardback
    • hardcover
    • Hebrews
    • hold open
    • Hosea
    • I Chronicles
    • I Corinthians
    • I Esdra
    • I John
    • I Kings
    • I Maccabees
    • I Peter
    • I Samuel
    • I Thessalonians
    • I Timothy
    • II Chronicles
    • II Corinthians
    • II Esdras
    • II John
    • II Kings
    • II Maccabees
    • II Peter
    • II Samuel
    • II Thessalonians
    • II Timothy
    • III John
    • Isaiah
    • James
    • Jeremiah
    • Job
    • Joel
    • John
    • Jonah
    • Joshua
    • Josue
    • journal
    • Jude
    • Judges
    • Judith
    • keep
    • keep open
    • King James Bible
    • King James Version
    • Lamentations
    • leaflet
    • Letter of Jeremiah
    • Leviticus
    • libretto
    • logbook
    • Luke
    • Malachi
    • Malachias
    • Mark
    • Matthew
    • Micah
    • Micheas
    • Nahum
    • Nehemiah
    • New English Bible
    • notebook
    • novel
    • Numbers
    • Obadiah
    • order book
    • pamphlet
    • paper-back book
    • paperback
    • paperback book
    • pharmacopeia
    • Philemon
    • Philippians
    • phrase book
    • picture book
    • playbook
    • pop-up
    • pop-up book
    • prayer book
    • Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Children
    • prayerbook
    • prompt copy
    • promptbook
    • Proverbs
    • Psalms
    • reference
    • reference book
    • reference work
    • Revelation
    • Revelation of Saint John the Divine
    • review copy
    • Revised Standard Version
    • Revised Version
    • Rheims-Douay Bible
    • Rheims-Douay Version
    • Romans
    • Ruth
    • save
    • scenario
    • school text
    • schoolbook
    • scorecard
    • screenplay
    • Second Epistel of John
    • Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthi
    • Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalo
    • Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy
    • Second Epistle of Peter
    • Second Epistle to the Corinthians
    • Second Epistle to the Thessalonians
    • Second Epistle to Timothy
    • shooting script
    • Sirach
    • sketch block
    • sketch pad
    • sketchbook
    • soft-cover
    • soft-cover book
    • softback
    • softback book
    • Song of Solomon
    • Song of Songs
    • songbook
    • Sophonias
    • storybook
    • subsidiary ledger
    • Susanna
    • text
    • text edition
    • textbook
    • Third Epistel of John
    • ticket
    • Titus
    • Tobit
    • tome
    • trade book
    • trade edition
    • Utopia
    • Vulgate
    • Wisdom
    • Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach
    • Wisdom of Solomon
    • won-lost record
    • workbook
    • yearbook
    • Zacharias
    • Zechariah
    • Zephaniah

Hypernyms for the word book

    • accumulation
    • aggregation
    • assemblage
    • bespeak
    • book
    • call for
    • collection
    • dramatic composition
    • dramatic work
    • enter
    • fact
    • hold
    • journal
    • product
    • production
    • publication
    • put down
    • quest
    • record
    • register
    • religious text
    • religious writing
    • request
    • reserve
    • sacred text
    • sacred writing
    • schedule
    • section
    • subdivision
    • surname

See other words

    • What is bolo
    • The definition of bollock
    • The interpretation of the word boko
    • What is meant by bohrium
    • The lexical meaning bogan
    • The dictionary meaning of the word bodybuilder
    • The grammatical meaning of the word bodyboarder
    • Meaning of the word bodhi tree
    • Literal and figurative meaning of the word bod
    • The origin of the word bookkeeper
    • Synonym for the word boondoggle
    • Antonyms for the word boong
    • Homonyms for the word boot
    • Hyponyms for the word boot sector
    • Holonyms for the word bootstrap
    • Hypernyms for the word borax
    • Proverbs and sayings for the word borborigmus
    • Translation of the word in other languages border


n

ru

A record of betting (from the use of a notebook to record what each person has bet).


I’m running a book on who is going to win the race.


n

ru

A convenient collection, in a form resembling a book, of small paper items for individual use.


a book of raffle tickets


a book of stamps


n

ru

The script of a musical or opera.


n

ru

(usually in the plural) Records of the accounts of a business.


n

ru

A book award, a recognition for receiving the highest grade in a class (traditionally an actual book, but recently more likely a letter or certificate acknowledging the achievement).


n

ru

(whist) Six tricks taken by one side.


n

ru

A document, held by the referee, of the incidents happened in the game.


n

ru

(by extension) A list of all players who have been booked (received a warning) in a game.


n

ru

The twenty-sixth Lenormand card.


n

ru

Any source of instruction.


v

ru

To reserve (something) for future use.


I can book tickets for the concert next week.


I want to book a hotel room for tomorrow night


v

ru

To write down, to register or record in a book or as in a book.


They booked that message from the hill


v

ru

(law enforcement) To record the name and other details of a suspected offender and the offence for later judicial action.


The police booked him for driving too fast.


v

ru

To issue with a caution, usually a yellow card, or a red card if a yellow card has already been issued.


v

ru

To travel very fast.


He was really booking, until he passed the speed trap.


v

ru

To record bets as bookmaker.


v

ru

(law student slang) To receive the highest grade in a class.


The top three students had a bet on which one was going to book their intellectual property class.


v

ru

To leave.


He was here earlier, but he booked.


v

ru

(with person as subject) To cook (something) in an oven.


I baked a delicious cherry pie.


She’s been baking all day to prepare for the dinner.


v

ru

(with baked thing as subject) To be cooked in an oven.


v

ru

To be warmed to drying and hardening.


The clay baked in the sun.


v

ru

To dry by heat.


They baked the electrical parts lightly to remove moisture.


v

ru

To be hot.


I’m baking after that workout in the gym.


It is baking in the greenhouse.


v

ru

To fix (lighting, reflections, etc.) as part of the texture of an object to improve rendering performance.


v

ru

(with «in» or «into») To incorporate into something greater.

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