verb phrase🎓 English idiom
read between the lines
to understand the hidden meaning
What it means
To understand a hidden or implied meaning that is not stated directly. You infer what someone really thinks or feels from clues, tone, or what they leave unsaid.
Words like “read between the lines” are exactly the kind of vocabulary our English vocabulary size test measures — find out how many English words you know.
Examples
- She never complained outright, but reading between the lines, she was clearly unhappy.
- If you read between the lines of his email, he's basically rejecting the offer.
- Politicians rarely say what they mean, so you have to read between the lines.
- Reading between the lines, I think they're planning to sell the company soon.
Where it comes from
The phrase comes from 19th-century cryptography, where secret messages were sometimes written in invisible ink between the visible lines of an ordinary letter.
Related idioms
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