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say it: tayk
take is a verb and noun meaning "carry out". It is pronounced /ˈteɪk/ — tayk. It carries 44 recorded senses.
get into one's hands, take physically
“Take a cookie!”
“Can you take this bag, please”
travel or go by means of a certain kind of transportation, or a certain route
“He takes the bus to work”
“She takes Route 1 to Newark”
pick out, select, or choose from a number of alternatives
“Take any one of these cards”
“Choose a good husband for your daughter”
“She selected a pair of shoes from among the dozen the salesgirl had shown her”
take into consideration for exemplifying purposes
“Take the case of China”
“Consider the following case”
require as useful, just, or proper
“It takes nerve to do what she did”
“success usually requires hard work”
“This job asks a lot of patience and skill”
“This position demands a lot of personal sacrifice”
“This dinner calls for a spectacular dessert”
“This intervention does not postulate a patient's consent”
remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something abstract
“remove a threat”
“remove a wrapper”
“Remove the dirty dishes from the table”
“take the gun from your pocket”
“This machine withdraws heat from the environment”
ascertain or determine by measuring, computing or take a reading from a dial
“take a pulse”
“A reading was taken of the earth's tremors”
take as an undesirable consequence of some event or state of affairs
“the accident claimed three lives”
“The hard work took its toll on her”
point or cause to go (blows, weapons, or objects such as photographic equipment) towards
“Please don't aim at your little brother!”
“He trained his gun on the burglar”
“Don't train your camera on the women”
“Take a swipe at one's opponent”
to get into a position of having, e.g., safety, comfort
“take shelter from the storm”
have sex with; archaic use
“He had taken this woman when she was most vulnerable”
develop a habit
“He took to visiting bars”
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.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for take come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.