The Python "read" function is used to read a file in Python. It is commonly used to open and read the contents of a text file. Here is an example of how to use the "read" function:

file = open("example.txt", "r")  
content = file.read()  
print(content)  
file.close()  

In this example, we first open the file "example.txt" in read mode using the "open" function. The second argument "r" specifies that we want to open the file for reading. We then use the "read" function to read the contents of the file and store it in the "content" variable. Finally, we print the contents of the file and close the file using the "close" method.

It is important to note that after opening a file, it is good practice to close it using the "close" method to free up system resources.