American Heritage Dictionary Entry: teach HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key. Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window. guide to the dictionary THE USAGE PANEL The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions. The Panelists NEED HELP SOLVING A CROSSWORD PUZZLE? Go to our Crossword Puzzle Solver and type in the letters that you know, and the Solver will produce a list of possible solutions. -- AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android. THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more. OPEN DICTIONARY PROJECT Share your ideas for new words and new meanings of old words! Start Sharing Now! -- See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series! Find out more! INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES? Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com teach (tēch) Share: Tweet v. taught (tôt), teach·ing, teach·es v.tr. 1. To impart knowledge or skill to: teaches children. 2. To provide knowledge of; instruct in: teaches French. 3. To condition to a certain action or frame of mind: teaching youngsters to be self-reliant. 4. To cause to learn by example or experience: an accident that taught me a valuable lesson. 5. To advocate or preach: teaches racial and religious tolerance. 6. To carry on instruction on a regular basis in: taught high school for many years. v.intr. To give instruction, especially as an occupation. n. Slang A teacher. [Middle English techen, from Old English tǣcan; see deik- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] Synonyms: teach, instruct, educate, train, school1, discipline, drill1 These verbs mean to impart knowledge or skill. Teach is the most widely applicable: taught the child to draw; taught literature at the college. Instruct often suggests training in some special field or skill: instructed the undergraduates in music theory. Educate often implies formal instruction but especially stresses the development of innate capacities: "We are educated by others ... and this cultivation, mingling with our innate disposition, is the soil in which our desires, passions, and motives grow" (Mary Shelley). Train suggests concentration on particular skills intended to fit a person for a desired role: trained the vocational students to be computer technicians. School often implies an arduous training process: "He took young Deanie under his wing and schooled him in the art of ambidextrous gunplay" (T.J. English). Discipline usually refers to the teaching of control, especially self-control: disciplined myself to exercise every day. Drill implies rigorous instruction or training, usually by repetition: drilled the students by having them recite the multiplication tables. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. Teach (tēch) also Thatch (thăch), Edward Known as Black·beard (blăkbîrd′) Died 1718. Share: Tweet English pirate who preyed on shipping off the coast of the American colonies and in the Caribbean until he was killed by British naval forces. (click for a larger image)Edward Teach The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices: Indo-European Roots Semitic Roots The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. 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