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In my preperation for exam, I came across the following exam-question / scenario:

You work in the offices of a local business and "subscribe to" the magazine, “Business Communication.” In a recent edition, there was the following advertisement for a competition:

The writer of the winning article will receive a free 2-year subscription to
“Business Communication”.

I know that "subscribe" means to get a magazine or news on a regular basis. Is this also the meaning of "subscribe to" here ?

Definition of "subscribe to" Oxford Dictionary:

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  • I think that the definitiion 1 that you quoted is reasonably clear: "Arrange to receive something, typically a publication, regularly by paying in advance." The second usage means that the winner would not have to pay anything to receive the magazine for two years.
    – JavaLatte
    Mar 31, 2018 at 14:34
  • I wanted to go sure that "subscribed to" isn't a idiom that totally differ to "receiving a paper/news on a regular basis"
    – FrankMK
    Mar 31, 2018 at 15:09
  • Just to be clear: in this context, subscribe to doesn't mean simply receiving something, it means arranging to receive something. For example, if a company delivers a free newspaper to every house in a city, you wouldn't say that you subscribed to the newspaper: you would simply say that you get the free newspaper. If the company delivered the newspaper only to people that asked to receive it, you would say that you subscribed to it... because you asked. Literally, subscribe means "write underneath", ie add your name to a list.
    – JavaLatte
    Mar 31, 2018 at 16:08
  • It means that you receive the magazine on a regular basis. To elaborate, you wouldn't say 'subscribe the magazine' you'd say 'subscribe to the magazine'. This is subtly different to the OED quote that means 'to endorse' as in to 'subscribe to a philosophy' I can't think of any circumstance where you wouldn't say 'subscribe to' in a formal context.
    – MarkTO
    Dec 24, 2018 at 19:24

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