Meaning & use
revise
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To read a piece of writing, a plan, or a document again and change it to fix mistakes or make it better.
Grammar: Takes an object: revise the essay; the object is the thing that gets changed.
Patterns
- revise something
- revise something for something
I need to revise my essay before handing it in.
The editor asked the author to revise the third chapter.
The council revised the plan to include a bike lane.
verbtransitive
To change an opinion, estimate, or figure because new information shows the old one was wrong.
Grammar: Takes an opinion or number as object: the agency revised its forecast.
Patterns
- revise an estimate
- revise something upward
- revise something downward
Economists revised their forecast after the weak jobs report.
After hearing the evidence, he revised his opinion of the project.
The company revised its sales figures upward in the second quarter.
verbtransitive or intransitiveBritish
To go over school or course material again in order to prepare for an exam.
Grammar: In British English you can revise for an exam or revise a subject; in American English you review or study.
Patterns
- revise for something
- revise something for something
She spent the weekend revising for her chemistry exam.
We revised the irregular verbs together before the test.
He found it hard to revise with the noise from next door.
Word forms
| third person singular | revises |
|---|---|
| past tense | revised |
| past participle | revised |
| -ing form | revising |
Common combinations
- revise a draft
- She revised the draft three times before sending it.
- revise downward
- Analysts revised the growth estimate downward.
- revise for an exam
- He is revising for his history exam all week.
- revise your opinion
- I had to revise my opinion once I met them.
- revised edition
- The revised edition fixes many errors from the first printing.
Synonyms and how they differ
- amend
- Amend is more formal and used for official texts like laws or contracts, while revise can describe any piece of writing.
- edit
- Edit focuses on correcting and improving the wording, whereas revise can involve bigger changes to content or ideas.
- update
- Update means to bring something up to date with new facts, while revise can also mean correcting errors.
- review
- In American English, review is the usual word for going over study material, but it also means examining without necessarily changing anything.
Opposites
Word family
- revision noun
- a changed version of something, or study done before an exam
- revised adjective
- changed to improve or update
- reviser noun
- a person who revises a text
- revisionist adjective
- describing a view that re-examines accepted ideas, especially history
Commonly confused: revise or review?
revise vs review
Review means to look carefully at something, perhaps to judge it, whereas revise means to change it; in Britain they both can describe studying for an exam.
Practice
After the new data arrived, the agency decided to ___ its earlier estimate.
Choose one answer.
Revise means to change an estimate in light of new information. Reverse would mean turning the decision completely around, which is stronger than the sentence suggests, and revive and revoke are about bringing back or canceling.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “revise”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.