sight-read

American

[sahyt-reed] / ˈsaɪtˌrid /

verb (used with or without object)

sight-read, sight-reading

to read, play, or sing without previous practice, rehearsal, or study of the material to be treated.

to sight-read music; to sight-read another language.

sight-read British

/ ˈsaɪtˌriːd /

verb

to sing or play (music in a printed or written form) without previous preparation

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of sight-read

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He came roaring out of Pittsburgh with a reputation for an extraordinary musical vocabulary, able to sight-read Bach as easily as a chart by Count Basie, and found himself in great demand as a sideman.

From Washington Post • Apr. 16, 2023

Luckily, a career detour, a shorter haircut or a new diet don’t define her essence; she still knows how to sight-read without restraint.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 1, 2022

He attended the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music, learned to sight-read and essentially taught himself the skills of a master guitarist.

From New York Times • Aug. 12, 2022

He can sight-read multisyllabic words, but he can’t always figure out why a character in a story acted the way they did.

From Slate • Nov. 4, 2020

They could not help him sight-read a new tune from scratch.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023