follow

UK/ˈfɒləʊ/US/ˈfɑloʊ/

verbA14 meanings One of the most common words in English · #344 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: following, followed, follows

To follow is to go along behind someone, the same way they went. The dog follows you from room to room, you follow the signs to the exit, a white car followed us all the way to the bridge.

Follow reaches well past walking. You follow instructions and you follow a recipe; you follow a story or an argument, meaning you keep up with it — sorry, I don't follow is what English says when it has lost the thread. You follow a team, and now an account, which is how the word earns its living online. It follows that introduces a conclusion, as follows introduces a list, and to follow up is to go back and check. One thing to keep straight: the day after is the following day, never the follow day.

Definitions of follow

1verbfollowTo go behind someone or something, moving the same way.A1~8%
“The children followed her into the hall.”
2verbobeyTo do what an instruction, a rule or a recipe says.A2~40%
“Follow the recipe exactly the first time.”
synonyms: obey, stick to
3verbunderstandTo understand something while it is being said or told.A2~2%
“He spoke so fast that nobody could follow him.”
4verborderTo come after something in time or in order.A2~50%
“A long silence followed the announcement.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 140 sentences found in the wild and placed 110 of them on a sense (30 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Phrases it lives in

follow suit — do the same thing somebody else has just done
follow in someone's footsteps — take the same path in life as they did
as follows — introducing the list that comes next

Where it comes from

Proto-Germanic
*fulgāną — to follow
Proto-West Germanic
*folgēn
Old English
folgian — to follow, pursue
Middle English
folwen
English, today
follow

From Middle English folwen, folȝen, folgen, from Old English folgian (“to follow, pursue”), from Proto-West Germanic folgēn, from Proto-Germanic fulgāną (“to follow”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Everyday Verbs, Logic & Argument, Dance

Practise this word

follow in the wild

For some groups of organisms, their orders may follow consistent naming schemes.
Order (taxonomy)
As opposed to observing an entire population, a panel study follows a smaller, selected group - called a 'panel'.
Longitudinal study
The series premiered on October 26, 2015, on MTV, and follows the life of Ja Rule and his family.
Follow the Rules
In common law, precedent can either be something courts must follow (binding) or something they can consider but do not have to follow (persuasive).
Precedent
The deadliest diseases in humans are ischemic heart disease (blood flow obstruction), followed by stroke and COPD (a lung disease).
Disease

1 / 6

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

Definitions of follow

1verbfollowTo go behind someone or something, moving the same way.A1~8%

“The children followed her into the hall.”

2verbobeyTo do what an instruction, a rule or a recipe says.A2~40%

“Follow the recipe exactly the first time.”

synonyms: obey, stick to

3verbunderstandTo understand something while it is being said or told.A2~2%

“He spoke so fast that nobody could follow him.”

4verborderTo come after something in time or in order.A2~50%

“A long silence followed the announcement.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 140 sentences found in the wild and placed 110 of them on a sense (30 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.