What does "book" mean?

1. (reading material) a set of printed pages held together inside a cover, or a digital version of this. 2. (business records) the official records of the money a business spends and receives. 3. (theatre script) the written words and story of a musical or opera. 4. (to reserve) to arrange to have a seat, room, or service at a particular time in the future. 5. (to record an offence) to officially record someone's name because they have done something wrong. 6. (sports warning) to give a player a formal warning for breaking the rules. 7. (to move fast) to move or travel very quickly.

book — meaning, definition & examples

Word

01reading material

A1 · Beginner Countable noun

n. a set of printed pages held together inside a cover, or a digital version of this.

n. a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers.

“I am reading a very interesting book about history right now.”

“The library houses several rare books from the sixteenth century that require special handling due to their fragile bindings.”

Synonyms

volume tome publication

02business records

B2 · Upper Intermediate Plural noun

n. the official records of the money a business spends and receives.

n. the formal financial records of an organisation or business entity.

“The accountant spent all day checking the company's books for errors.”

“The auditors discovered a significant discrepancy in the books, suggesting that several transactions had been recorded incorrectly over the fiscal year.”

Synonyms

accounts ledgers records

03theatre script

C1 · Advanced Countable noun Theater Technical

n. the written words and story of a musical or opera.

n. the script or libretto of a musical theatre production, excluding the music and lyrics.

“The musical had great songs, but the book was a bit boring.”

“While the score received critical acclaim, the book was criticised for its lack of character development and inconsistent pacing.”

Synonyms

script libretto

04to reserve

A2 · Elementary

v. to arrange to have a seat, room, or service at a particular time in the future.

v. to reserve accommodation, a ticket, or a service in advance.

“You should book your flight early to get a cheaper price.”

“The travel agent advised us to book the hotel months in advance, as the city becomes extremely crowded during the summer festival.”

Synonyms

reserve arrange

Antonyms

cancel

05to record an offence

B2 · Upper Intermediate Law

v. to officially record someone's name because they have done something wrong.

v. to record the name and details of a person who has committed an offence for legal or disciplinary purposes.

“The police officer booked him for driving too fast.”

“After the suspect was brought to the station, the sergeant proceeded to book him for obstructing justice and resisting arrest.”

Synonyms

charge register

06sports warning

B1 · Intermediate Sports

v. to give a player a formal warning for breaking the rules.

v. to note a player's name in an official record for a foul, typically signified by showing a yellow card.

“The referee booked the defender for a dangerous tackle.”

“The referee had no choice but to book the midfielder after a series of persistent fouls throughout the first half.”

Synonyms

caution

07to move fast

C1 · Advanced Informal · Slang · American English

v. to move or travel very quickly.

v. to move at high speed; to depart in a hurried manner.

“We really need to book it if we want to catch the train.”

“As soon as the bell rang, the students were booking it down the hallway to get to the cafeteria before the line got too long.”

Synonyms

dash speed bolt

Antonyms

dawdle linger

usually used in the plural form 'the books'

“Anthropic, the artificial-intelligence company behind the family of large language models known as Claude, is trying to acquire as many printed books as possible.”

The New Yorker 8 Sept 2026

“The AI company apparently found destructively scanning ‘all the books in the world’ easier than dealing with copyright in its quest for training data”

The Guardian 5 Aug 2026

From Middle English bok, from Old English bōc, from Proto-West Germanic \bōk, from Proto-Germanic \bōks.

The cognate list is extensive: Scots beuk, buik, buke; Yola buke; North Frisian Bok, buk, bök; Saterland Frisian Bouk; West Frisian and Dutch boek; Alemannic German Buech; Bavarian Buach; Central Franconian Booch, Buch; German and Luxembourgish Buch; German Low German Book; Limburgish book, Bouk; Vilamovian büch; Yiddish בוך (bukh); Danish bog; Elfdalian buok; Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish bok.

The bookmaker sense arrived by clipping, a later reduction from the full compound.

From Middle English booken, boken, from Old English bōcian, ġebōcian, from the noun (see above).

From Proto-Germanic bōk, the first and third person singular past tense of bakaną ("to bake"), passing through Old English bōc and Middle English bok, book. The semantic journey from baked goods to written record is not recorded in detail; the connection presumably lies with the use of baked clay tablets or perhaps with the beechwood tablets that served as early writing surfaces in Germanic cultures.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.