ref

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ref^¹

/ɹɛf/ US

Sounds like reph · Rhymes with -ɛf

Where it comes from

Clippings.

noun refs

abbreviation, clipping, informal Clipping of referee
abbreviation Abbreviation of reference
abbreviation, clipping Clipping of refsheet
abbreviation Abbreviation of refectory
Philippines, abbreviation, clipping, informal Clipping of refrigerator Please close the ref.

verb refs · reffing · reffed

ambitransitive, informal To referee; to act as a referee in a sport or game. On the block when we were growing up we called him Ronnie the Enforcer because he umped all the stickball games and reffed the hockey.

REF^²

noun REFs

abbreviation, initialism Initialism of row echelon form

proper noun

UK, abbreviation, initialism Initialism of Research Excellence Framework: a system for assessing the quality of research in higher-education institutions.

Ref^³

proper noun Refs

A surname.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: referee, baseline, footnote, benchmark, lection, lpe, part, reference, referral, referendum, arbitrator, see, arbiter, adjudicator, english, cleric

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Cite this

MLA

"ref." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/ref. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

ref. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/ref

Chicago

"ref." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/ref.

BibTeX

@misc{ref_2026,
  title = {ref},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/ref},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}

ref