Word.ws English Dictionary

scrivener

/ˈskɹɪvnə(ɹ)/US/ˈskɹɪvənəɹ/

scrivener noun: a professional writer; one whose occupation is to draw contracts or prepare writings.

Noun

scrivener (plural scriveners)

  1. A professional writer; one whose occupation is to draw contracts or prepare writings.
    • Scrivener (enters with a paper in hand):Here is the indictment of the good Lord Hastings,
      Which in a set hand fairly is engrossed
      That is may be today read o'er in Paul's.
      And mark how well the sequel hangs together:
      Eleven hours I have spent to write it over[…]c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • The nature of my avocations for the last thirty years has brought me into more than ordinary contact with what would seem an interesting and somewhat singular set of men, of whom as yet nothing that I know of has ever been written:—I mean the law-copyists or scriveners.1853, Herman Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener”, in The Piazza Tales, New York: Dix, Edwards & Co, published 1856
  2. (obsolete) One whose business is to place money at interest; a broker.

Proper noun capitalized: Scrivener

Scrivener

  1. A surname.

scrivener meaning in Urdu, Bengali and Kannada

scrivener in Bengali

মুহুরি, পেশাদার লেখক

scrivener in Kannada

ಲಿಪಿಗಾರ, ಬರಹಗಾರ, ಬರಹದ ಕಸುಬಿನವ

Synonyms of scrivener

Forms of scrivener

pluralscriveners

Origin of scrivener

From Middle English scryvener, alteration of scryveyn, from Anglo-Norman scrivein (“professional penman, copyist”), from Old French escrivain, from Vulgar Latin *scriba, *scribanem, from Latin scriba, from scrībō (“to write”).

Words formed from scrivener

Questions about scrivener

What does scrivener mean?
Scrivener means a professional writer; one whose occupation is to draw contracts or prepare writings.
What is scrivener in Urdu?
Scrivener in Urdu is محرر. See Scrivener meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is scrivener?
Scrivener can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce scrivener?
Scrivener is pronounced /ˈskɹɪvnə(ɹ)/ (UK).
What is the plural of scrivener?
The plural of scrivener is scriveners.

Words near scrivener in the dictionary

  1. scrivanos
  2. scrivans
  3. scrive
  4. scrived
  5. Scriven
  6. scrivener
  7. scrivener's palsy
  8. scriveneries
  9. scriveners
  10. scrivenership
  11. scrivenery

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scrivener (page history and authors); Scrivener (page history and authors); scrivener (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scrivener (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scrivener (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-scrivener.wav.

Cite this entry: “scrivener.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scrivener. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.