read the room

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

read the room (third-person singular simple present reads the room, present participle reading the room, simple past and past participle read the room)

1. (idiomatic) To understand the emotions and thoughts of the people present, especially to determine the kind of speech or actions that would be appropriate or inappropriate.

   Synonym: read the table

   • 2024 May 9, Emma Roth, quoting Reed Morano, “Apple apologizes for iPad ‘Crush’ ad that ‘missed the mark’”, in The Verge‎^[1]:

     The ad rubbed some creatives the wrong way. Hugh Grant called it a “destruction of human experience,” while Handmaid’s Tale director Reed Morano told Apple CEO Tim Cook to “read the room” in a post on X.

   • 2024 May 21, Arwa Mahdawi, “Sex-positive feminism had its moment – and now it has been replaced by voluntary celibacy”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Long story short: Bumble did not read the room.

Translations

Translations

• Finnish: olla tilannetajua (impersonal, subject in the adessive)
• Japanese: 空気を読む (ja) (kūki o yomu)
• Polish: wyczuwać klimat impf, wyczuć klimat pf
• Swedish: pejla/läsa (av) stämningen (sv)

See also

• social proof
• work the room