# follow

/ˈfɑɫoʊ/ (US) · /fˈɒləʊ/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/follow
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 1. to move behind

verb · CEFR A1

to move behind someone or something that is going in front of you.

For teachers: to move behind in the same path or direction; to pursue or go after.

- The little ducklings followed their mother across the busy road.
- The security team followed the suspect through the crowded terminal, maintaining a discreet distance to avoid detection.

Usage: Often used with a direct object or as an intransitive verb with 'behind'.

### 2. to come after in time

verb · CEFR A2

to happen or come after something else in a sequence.

For teachers: to occur or exist after something else in a temporal or logical sequence.

- Monday follows Sunday in the calendar every week.
- A period of rapid economic growth followed the implementation of the new trade policies, surprising many skeptical analysts.

Usage: Commonly used in the passive voice to describe historical or logical order.

### 3. to obey or copy

verb · CEFR A2

to do what an instruction, rule, or person tells you to do.

For teachers: to act in accordance with instructions, rules, or a specific example.

- You must follow the instructions carefully to build the bookshelf correctly.
- The laboratory technicians must follow the safety protocols strictly to prevent any accidental exposure to hazardous chemicals.

Usage: Takes a direct object like 'rules', 'instructions', or 'advice'.

### 4. to understand

verb · CEFR B1

to understand an explanation or the meaning of what someone is saying.

For teachers: to grasp the meaning or logic of an argument, story, or explanation.

- I'm sorry, I don't quite follow your logic — could you explain that again?
- The professor's lecture was so dense with technical jargon that even the senior students struggled to follow his main thesis.

Usage: Often used in the negative to express confusion.

### 5. to track or subscribe

verb · CEFR A2

to keep track of someone's news or subscribe to their social media account.

For teachers: to monitor the progress of an event or to subscribe to a user's digital content updates.

- I follow my favourite chef on Instagram to see her new recipes.
- Political analysts closely follow the polling data in the months leading up to a national election.

Usage: In a digital context, it is a transitive verb taking the account or person as the object.

### 6. to result logically

verb · CEFR B2 · Academic

to be a natural or logical result of something that happened before.

For teachers: to be a logical consequence or a necessary inference from premises.

- If the shop is closed, it follows that we cannot buy any bread today.
- From the evidence presented in the report, it follows that the current infrastructure is insufficient for the projected population growth.

Usage: Often used in the phrase 'it follows that'.

### 7. social media action

noun · CEFR B1 · Informal

the act of subscribing to someone's updates on a social media site.

For teachers: the instance of subscribing to a user's feed on a social media platform.

- She was excited to get her first thousand follows on her new art blog.
- The marketing department tracked the number of new follows generated by the influencer's influencer campaign.

Usage: Usually a countable noun.

## Examples

- Please follow me to the meeting room.
- The tourists follow the guide through the narrow streets of the old city to reach the museum.
- While the junior researchers were encouraged to follow the established protocol, they were also expected to document any deviations that occurred during the experiment.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.