to impart knowledge of or skill in; give instruction in.
She teaches mathematics.
to impart knowledge or skill to; give instruction to.
He teaches a large class.
to help to learn; tell or show (how)
to teach someone to paint
to teach someone how to paint
to give instruction or lessons in (a subject) to (a person or animal)
to teach French
to teach children
she teaches
(tr; may take a clause as object or an infinitive) to cause to learn or understand
experience taught him that he could not be a journalist
Also: teach someone a lesson. informal to cause (someone) to suffer the unpleasant consequences of some action or behaviour
Teach, instruct, tutor, train, educate share the meaning of imparting information, understanding, or skill. Teach is the broadest and most general of these terms and can refer to almost any practice that causes others to develop skill or knowledge: to teach children to write; to teach marksmanship to soldiers; to teach tricks to a dog. Instruct almost always implies a systematic, structured method of teaching: to instruct paramedics in techniques of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Tutor refers to the giving of usually private instruction or coaching in a particular subject or skill: to tutor a child in ( a foreign language, algebra, history, or the like ). Train lays stress on the development of desired behaviors through practice, discipline, or the use of rewards or punishments: to train a child to be polite; to train recruits in military skills; to train a dog to heel. Educate, with a root sense of “to lead forth from,” refers to the imparting of a specific body of knowledge, especially one that equips a person to practice a profession: to educate a person for a high school diploma; to educate someone for the law.
First recorded before 900; Middle English techen, Old English tǣcan; akin to token
To teach is to transfer ideas or skills to another person. As an old saying goes, "Give someone a fish, they eat for a day, teach someone to fish and they eat for a lifetime." I hope they like seafood. The Old English word tǣcan, which became the Middle English techen, meant "to show or point out." But the Old English also had another word for teach — læran — which eventually became the modern "learn," with the current meaning of receiving knowledge rather than giving it. If someone tries to "teach you a lesson," he or she tries to punish you for something you've done in order that you won't do it again.
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Teach teens digital literacy, how to fact-check and verify information and figure out people’s credentials and motivations—such as who is getting paid for the products they’re endorsing.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 4, 2026
Teach the good, the bad, the ugly and the shameful.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 4, 2026
I applied to Teach for America and that’s kind of how I got into education.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 7, 2025
Sethi, founder of the financial education platform I Will Teach You to Be Rich, encourages his hundreds of thousands of followers to “live your rich life outside the spreadsheet.”
From Salon • May 24, 2025
Teach the arts for reasons beyond the research.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
