Word.ws English Dictionary

writ

/ɹɪt/

writ noun: a written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something. Also the simple past of write.

Noun

writ (countable and uncountable, plural writs)

  1. (countable) A written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
  2. (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, countable) A document ordering that an election be conducted.
  3. (UK, countable) An order issued by the House of Lords summoning peers to the Chamber.
  4. (uncountable) Authority, power to enforce compliance.
    • We can't let them take advantage of the fact that there are so many areas of the world where no one's writ runs.2009, Stephen Gale et al., The War on Terrorism: 21st-Century Perspectives, Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, page 30
    • Within Lololand, of course, no Chinese writ runs, no Chinese magistrate holds sway, and the people, more or less divided among themselves, are under the government of their tribal chiefs.1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, A Wayfarer in China
  5. (archaic) That which is written; writing.
    • Then to his hands that writ he did betake, / Which he disclosing, red thus, as the paper spake.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25
    • Babylon, so much spoken of in Holy Writ1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC

Also used as

writ is also the simple past of write.

writ is also the past participle of write up.

writ meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam

writ in Hindi

a written order
विधि vidhi

writ in Tamil

ரிட்

writ in Telugu

రిట్

writ in Malayalam

റിട്ട്
More languagesFewer languages
writ in Kannada
ರಿಟ್
writ in Punjabi
ਰਿੱਟ
writ in Gujarati
રિટ
writ in Odia
ରିଟ୍

Examples of writ in a sentence

  • Vicontiel writs were those that were triable in the sheriff, or county, court.
  • The court issued a writ of mandamus.
  • The plaintiffs not appearing, the writ of error was nonprossed.

All 29 example sentences with writ

Synonyms of writ

Forms of writ

pluralwrits

Plural of writ: writs

Origin of writ

From Middle English writ, from Old English writ and ġewrit (“writing”), from Proto-Germanic *writą (“fissure, writing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wrey-, *wrī- (“to scratch, carve, ingrave”). Cognate with Scots writ (“writ, writing, handwriting”), Icelandic rit (“writing, writ, literary work, publication”).

From Middle English writ, write, from Old English write.

Words formed from writ

Phrases with writ

Words that rhyme with writ

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about writ

What does writ mean?
Writ means a written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
What is writ in Hindi?
Writ in Hindi is विधि (vidhi). See Writ meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is writ?
Writ is a noun.
How do you pronounce writ?
Writ is pronounced /ɹɪt/.
What is the plural of writ?
The plural of writ is writs.

Words near writ in the dictionary

  1. wristwatches
  2. wristwear
  3. wristwork
  4. wristworn
  5. wristy
  6. writ
  7. writ large
  8. writ larger
  9. writ largest
  10. writ of assistance
  11. writ of attachment

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: writ (page history and authors); writ (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); writ (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); writ (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); writ (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); writ (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); writ (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); writ (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vininn126-writ.wav.

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