The Oxford Thesaurus An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms - respond v.

1) answer, reply, come back, return, react, reciprocate, counter; rejoin, retort: When Sean insulted her, Una responded with a slap to his face. I said, 'Good morning!' and Adrian responded, 'What's good about it?' 2 Often, respond to. be responsive (to) , react (to) , empathize (with) , sympathize (with) , commiserate (with) , feel for, pity, be affected or moved or touched (by) : Many respond to those charity appeals for the crippled and disabled.