write

English

Etymology

From Middle English writen, from Old English wrītan (“to incise, engrave, write, draw, bestow by writing”), from Proto-Germanic *wrītaną (“to carve, write”), from Proto-Indo-European *wrey- (“to rip, tear”). Cognate with West Frisian write (“to wear by rubbing, rip, tear”), Dutch wrijten (“to argue, quarrel”), Low German wrieten, rieten (“to tear, split”), Norwegian rita (“to rough-sketch, carve, write”), Swedish rita (“to draw, design, delineate, model”), Icelandic rita (“to cut, scratch, write”), German ritzen (“to carve, scratch”). See also rit and rat.

Pronunciation
  • (UK, US) enPR: rīt, IPA(key): /ɹaɪt/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪt
  • Homophones: right, rite, wright
A painting of a man writing.

Verb

write (third-person singular simple present writes, present participle writing, simple past wrote or (archaic) writ, past participle written or (archaic) writ)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To form letters, words or symbols on a surface in order to communicate.
    The pupil wrote his name on the paper.
    Your son has been writing on the wall.
  2. (transitive) To be the author of (a book, article, poem, etc.).
    My uncle writes newspaper articles for The Herald.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619:
      Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language […]; his clerks, however, understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there.
  3. (transitive) To send written information to.
    (UK) Please write to me when you get there.
    (US) Please write me when you get there.
  4. (transitive) To show (information, etc) in written form.
    The due day of the homework is written in the syllabus.
  5. (intransitive) To be an author.
    I write for a living.
  6. (computing, intransitive, with to) To record data mechanically or electronically.
    The computer writes to the disk faster than it reads from it.
  7. (transitive, South Africa, Canada, of an exam, a document, etc.) To fill in, to complete using words.
    I was very anxious to know my score after I wrote the test.
  8. To impress durably; to imprint; to engrave.
    truth written on the heart
  9. To make known by writing; to record; to prove by one's own written testimony; often used reflexively.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton
      He who writes himself by his own inscription is like an ill painter, who, by writing on a shapeless picture which he hath drawn, is fain to tell passengers what shape it is, which else no man could imagine.
Conjugation
conjugation of write
infinitive write
present participle writing
past participle written
simple progressive perfect perfect progressive
present I write we write I am writing we are writing I have written we have written I have been writing we have been writing
you write you write you are writing you are writing you have written you have written you have been writing you have been writing
he writes they write he is writing they are writing he has written they have written he has been writing they have been writing
past I wrote we wrote I was writing we were writing I had written we had written I had been writing we had been writing
you wrote you wrote you were writing you were writing you had written you had written you had been writing you had been writing
he wrote they wrote he was writing they were writing he had written they had written he had been writing they had been writing
future I will write we will write I will be writing we will be writing I will have written we will have written I will have been writing we will have been writing
you will write you will write you will be writing you will be writing you will have written you will have written you will have been writing you will have been writing
he will write they will write he will be writing they will be writing he will have written they will have written he will have been writing they will have been writing
conditional I would write we would write I would be writing we would be writing I would have written we would have written I would have been writing we would have been writing
you would write you would write you would be writing you would be writing you would have written you would have written you would have been writing you would have been writing
he would write they would write he would be writing they would be writing he would have written they would have written he would have been writing they would have been writing
imperative write

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

write (plural writes)

  1. (computing) The operation of storing data, as in memory or onto disk.
    How many writes per second can this hard disk handle?
    • 2006, MySQL administrator's guide and language reference (page 393)
      In other words, the system can do 1200 reads per second with no writes, the average write is twice as slow as the average read, and the relationship is linear.

References
  • write in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
  • write in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

Middle English

Verb

write

  1. Alternative form of writen
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