Basic+ Word of the Day: review

review (noun, verb) past tense: reviewed

"My annual performance review was stressful."

A review is the process of thinking about a subject again.

• The night before the exam, Stanley did a review of his notes.

A review can also be a critical article in a newspaper or online about a book, movie, play, restaurant, etc.

• Before we selected a restaurant we read the online reviews.
• The critics all gave the new movie a good review.

To review means ‘to go over or examine again.’

• Before you consider any changes, you should review the current situation.
• The professor reviewed her notes, before she went to class.

Common uses

performance review: a periodic, usually annual, discussion between an employee (worker) and boss about how well the employee has performed at his job.

Did you know?

Online reviews are everywhere these days. Before the internet, you had to rely on recommendations from a friend. Now you can find reviews for everything from doctors to hotels to shoes.

In pop culture

Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were famous Chicago critics who reviewed movies on TV for many years. Watch their review of the 1991 Disney film Beauty and the Beast.

There are other meanings of review.