Paraphrasing to summarize the meaning of what has been communicated is known as:

• A. Reflective listening
• B. Paraphrasing
• C. Responding
• D. Clarifying

Answer: (A)

Reflective listening focuses on understanding and confirming what the other person means by restating the message back to them. When you paraphrase to summarize the meaning, you’re not just repeating words—you’re restating the core idea in your own words to verify you’ve captured the speaker’s intended message. This feedback loop shows you’re actively listening and helps prevent miscommunication by checking accuracy. Paraphrasing alone is just restating content, without that explicit check for understanding. Responding is simply giving a reply, which may or may not reflect the exact meaning, and clarifying is about asking questions to clear up ambiguity. So summarizing the meaning through paraphrase is a classic example of reflective listening.