‘校读’ (jiào dú) is a specialized noun meaning ‘collation reading’—the careful, line-by-line comparison of two or more versions of a text to identify and correct discrepancies. The character 校 (jiào) means ‘to check, verify, or collate’, especially in scholarly or editorial contexts, while 读 (dú) means ‘to read’, but here it carries the nuance of ‘reading for verification’, not casual reading. Together, they form a compound emphasizing meticulous textual comparison rather than comprehension or interpretation.

This term is used primarily in publishing, academic editing, historical text restoration, and library science—especially when working with ancient manuscripts, printed editions, or critical editions of classical Chinese literature. It implies a disciplined, analytical process requiring expertise in philology, paleography, and textual history. While related to proofreading, 校读 is more rigorous and comparative: it assumes multiple source texts exist and must be weighed against one another, not just checked against a single standard.