return

1. 1.

   document giving the tax collector information about the taxpayer's tax liability

   “his gross income was enough that he had to file a tax return”

   Synonymstax returnincome tax return

   Broaderlegal document

   Narroweramended returndeclaration of estimated taxfalse returninformation returnjoint return
2. 2.

   a coming to or returning home

   “on his return from Australia we gave him a welcoming party”

   Synonymshomecoming

   Broaderarrival

   Narrowerrepatriation
3. 3.

   the occurrence of a change in direction back in the opposite direction

   Synonymscoming back

   Broaderturning
4. 4.

   getting something back again

   “upon the restitution of the book to its rightful owner the child was given a tongue lashing”

   Synonymsrestitutionrestorationregaining

   Broaderacquisition

   Narrowerclawback
5. 5.

   the act of going back to a prior location

   “they set out on their return to the base camp”

   Broadermotion

   Narrowerreentryremand
6. 6.

   the income or profit arising from such transactions as the sale of land or other property

   “the average return was about 5%”

   Synonymsissuetaketakingsproceedsyieldpayoff

   Broaderincome

   Narrowereconomic rentpayback
7. 7.

   happening again (especially at regular intervals)

   “the return of spring”

   Synonymsrecurrence

   Broaderrepeat

   Narroweratavismflashback
8. 8.

   a quick reply to a question or remark (especially a witty or critical one)

   “it brought a sharp rejoinder from the teacher”

   Synonymsrejoinderretortripostereplicationcomebackcounter

   Broaderreply

   Narrowersass
9. 9.

   the key on electric typewriters or computer keyboards that causes a carriage return and a line feed

   Synonymsreturn key

   Broaderkey
10. 10.

    a reciprocal group action

    “in return we gave them as good as we got”

    Synonymspaying backgetting even

    Broadergroup action

    Narrowerrequitalretaliationreciprocationtit for tat
11. 11.

    a tennis stroke that sends the ball back to the other player

    “he won the point on a cross-court return”

    Broadertennis stroke

    Narrowerbackhandchopdrivedrop shotforehandgetground strokehalf volleylob
12. 12.

    (American football) the act of running back the ball after a kickoff or punt or interception or fumble

    Broaderrun

    American football

13. 13.

    the act of someone appearing again

    “his reappearance as Hamlet has been long awaited”

    Synonymsreappearance

    Broaderappearance

    Narrowercomeback

Other forms of return

plural

returns·

past tense

returned·

present participle

returning·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about return

What does return mean?

return means "go or come back to place, condition, or activity where one has been before". That is the primary sense; the word has 29 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in return?

return has 2 syllables: re-turn. The stress falls on "turn". In IPA it is /ɹɪˈtɝn/.

What is another word for return?

Close synonyms include render, revert, retrovert, regress, turn back. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is return a common word?

return is banded "Core" — among the few thousand words that carry most english. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with return?

7 words rhyme with return. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.