as in literate
having or displaying advanced knowledge or education
any well-read person would recognize the quotation
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Recent Examples of well-read
Open-minded, passionate, forthright and brave, Eva is well-educated, well-read, adventurous, generous of spirit, a world-traveler.
—
Matt Grobar, Deadline, 2 June 2026
Grandma Bobby is well-read and well-traveled, glamorous and opinionated (speaking of usually-right old women), the old-school, no-nonsense daughter of a girl who walked out of a pogrom and emigrated to New York.
—Literary Hub, 7 May 2026
When the pandemic shut library doors, Bussey said e-books and audiobooks were what kept the local community well-read.
—Jack O'Connor, Chicago Tribune, 23 Apr. 2026
The stars were well-read and well-spoken, and academically motivated, some graduating in three years.
—Joe Davidson, Sacbee.com, 31 Mar. 2026
Alison Taylor, a professor of business and society at NYU’s Stern School of Business said being deeply well-read is becoming something of a luxury good—rare, valuable, and impossible to fake.
—Preston Fore, Fortune, 3 Mar. 2026
Heeding these cryptic words some three decades later, the audacious (and well-read) impresario Tony Wilson opened the Haçienda together with the circle of post-punk musicians and designers involved with his label, Factory Records.
—Boris Kachka, The Atlantic, 9 Jan. 2026
The same parents who built our algorithmic economy now limit their own children’s exposure to it, creating a new kind of digital divide—one where being unplugged and well-read are the ultimate luxuries.
—Liz Doe Stone, Forbes.com, 2 Sep. 2025
Matt Grobar, Deadline, 2 June 2026
Grandma Bobby is well-read and well-traveled, glamorous and opinionated (speaking of usually-right old women), the old-school, no-nonsense daughter of a girl who walked out of a pogrom and emigrated to New York.
—Literary Hub, 7 May 2026
When the pandemic shut library doors, Bussey said e-books and audiobooks were what kept the local community well-read.
—Jack O'Connor, Chicago Tribune, 23 Apr. 2026
The stars were well-read and well-spoken, and academically motivated, some graduating in three years.
—Joe Davidson, Sacbee.com, 31 Mar. 2026
Alison Taylor, a professor of business and society at NYU’s Stern School of Business said being deeply well-read is becoming something of a luxury good—rare, valuable, and impossible to fake.
—Preston Fore, Fortune, 3 Mar. 2026
Heeding these cryptic words some three decades later, the audacious (and well-read) impresario Tony Wilson opened the Haçienda together with the circle of post-punk musicians and designers involved with his label, Factory Records.
—Boris Kachka, The Atlantic, 9 Jan. 2026
The same parents who built our algorithmic economy now limit their own children’s exposure to it, creating a new kind of digital divide—one where being unplugged and well-read are the ultimate luxuries.
—Liz Doe Stone, Forbes.com, 2 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for well-read
Adjective
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Henry sees the change as an unfair burden to senior riders who are not as technologically literate and low-income residents who don’t have bank accounts to link to the phone app or a credit card.—
Dylan Lysen
June 11,
Kansas City Star,
11 June 2026
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At Saint-Gobain, Soritsch-Renier acknowledges that the workforce is often less literate from a technology perspective, as the organization is an industrial business focused on construction materials and, as such, hasn’t been called to embrace technology at the same level as other industries.—
Francesca Cassidy,
Fortune,
8 June 2026
Adjective
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They were meant to be read and thought about by an interested and educated public, as the authors understood the importance of public opinion not simply to the ratification process but to any democratic system.—
Jordan Cash,
The Conversation,
8 June 2026
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The Bay Area’s suburban population of some 5 million also has become increasingly diverse, educated and affluent.—
Martha Ross,
Mercury News,
2 June 2026
Adjective
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The women had been close friends while studying for their doctorates some years earlier, but Catherine has since grown resentful of Leonora’s career, and dismissive of women whose scholarly ambitions come before marital subservience.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
9 June 2026
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There has never quite been a critical or scholarly consensus about them, but Bellini, whose music is suspended somewhere between Rossini’s precise brilliance and Donizetti’s rhetorical force, can move audiences with his melodic facility.—
Arya Roshanian,
The New York Review of Books,
6 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Well-read.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/well-read. Accessed 16 Jun. 2026.
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