write
/ɹaɪt/[ɹaɪt]
write verb: to form letters, words or symbols on a surface in order to communicate.
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Verb
write (third-person singular simple present writes, present participle writing, simple past wrote or (archaic) writ, past participle written or (archaic) writ or (obsolete) ywriten)
- 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.
- To be the author of (a book, article, poem, etc.).
- My uncle writes newspaper articles for The Herald.
- 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.1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC
- To compose and send written information (to).
- Please write to me when you get there.
- Please write me when you get there.
- To compose and send (written information or a written message, e.g. a letter) to.
- Please write me a letter. Please write a letter to me.
- To convey a fact to someone via writing.
- Jimmy wrote me that he needs more money.
- Do you know, one man actually wrote me he thought he could almost shave with the back of the blade, the lather "mellowed" his beard so.1916 March 11, “[advertisement] Jim Henry, Optimist”, in Saturday Evening Post
- To show (information, etc) in written form.
- The due day of the homework is written in the syllabus.
- Ghana's motto, writ large on the gleaming white Independence Arch that overlooks the Atlantic in Accra, is "Freedom and Justice."1957 September 30, “Ghana: White Eminence”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Oct 2011
- To be an author.
- I write for a living.
- I said that I did not believe anyone could write any way except the very best he could write without destroying his talent.1964, Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, page 151
- To record data mechanically or electronically.
- The computer writes to the disk faster than it reads from it.
- Synonyms:
- save
- To fill in, to complete using words.
- I was very anxious to know my score after I wrote the test.
- Kúnlé had failed biology and chemistry, key requirements for admission into any medical school in the country. Kúnlé’s father wanted him to write the exams again.2023, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, A Spell of Good Things, Canongate Books, page 132
- Synonyms:
- sit
- To impress durably; to imprint; to engrave.
- truth written on the heart
- 14 For when the Gentiles which haue not the Law, doe by nature the things contained in the Law: these hauing not the Law, are a Law vnto themselues,
15 Which shew the worke of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witnesse, and their thoughts the meane while accusing, or...1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 2:14–15
- To make known by writing; to record; to prove by one's own written testimony; often used reflexively.
- Thoſe walled garriſons will I ſubdue,
And write my ſelfe great Lord of Affrica:
So from the Eaſt vnto the furtheſt Weſt,
Shall Tamburlaine extend his puiſant arme.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC... - He who writes himself Martyr 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.1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC
- Thoſe walled garriſons will I ſubdue,
- To sell (an option or other derivative).
- To paint a religious icon or a pysanka egg.
Noun
write (plural writes)
- The act or style of writing.
- The pen also gives a better write than the ordinary counter pen. The ink stand cannot be stolen, for it is fastened to the counter or desk.1938, The Bankers Monthly, volume 55, page 591
- The operation of storing data, as in memory or onto disk.
- How many writes per second can this hard disk handle?
- 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.2006, MySQL administrator's guide and language reference, page 393
write meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
write in Hindi
- to form letters, etc.
- लिखना likhnā
write in Tamil
- to form letters, etc.
- எழுது eḻutu
write in Marathi
- to form letters, etc.
- लिहिणे lihiṇe
write in Urdu
- to form letters, etc.
- لِکْھنا likhnā
More languagesFewer languages
- write in Bengali
- লেখা lekha
- write in Telugu
- వ్రాయు vrāyu, లిఖించు likhiñcu, చెప్పు ceppu
- write in Malayalam
- എഴുതുക eḻutuka
- write in Kannada
- ಬರೆ bare
- write in Punjabi
- ਲਿਖਣਾ likhṇā
- write in Gujarati
- લખવું lakhvũ
- write in Odia
- ଲେଖ lekha
- write in Sanskrit
- लिखति likhati
- write in Sinhala
- ලියනවා liyanawā
- write in Assamese
- লিখ likh, লেখ lekh
- write in Nepali
- लेख्नु lekhnu
- write in Pashto
- کاږل kāẓǝl, کويښل kwex̌ǝl, کوښل kox̌ǝl
- write in Tagalog
- sumulat, isulat
- write in Arabic
- كَاتَبَ kātaba, َأَلَّف aʔallaf, كَتَبَ kataba, كتب katab
- write in Malay
- tulis
- write in Indonesian
- tulis, menulis, catat
- write in Persian
- نَوِشْتَن nawištan, نِوِشْتَن neveštan
- write in Thai
- เขียน kǐian, ขีด kìit
- write in Vietnamese
- viết, ghi
- write in Myanmar
- ရေး re:, စာရေး care:
- Sindhi
- لکڻ lkhṇ
- Dhivehi
- ލިޔަނީ liyanī
- Kashmiri
- لیکھُن lēkhun
- Dzongkha
- ཡི་གུ་བྲི yi gu bri
Examples of write in a sentence
- He never phones me, but he does write occasionally.
- But it was very difficult, and I did not know how I would ever write anything as long as a novel.1964, Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 151:
Synonyms of write
Antonyms
Forms of write
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | writes |
| present participle | writing |
| past | wrote |
| past participle | written |
| past (archaic) | writ |
| past participle (archaic) | writ |
| past participle (obsolete) | ywriten |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | writest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | wrotest |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | writeth |
| Noun | |
| plural | writes |
Origin of write
From Middle English writen, from Old English wrītan, from Proto-West Germanic *wrītan, 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”), Middle Low German wrîten (“to scratch, draw, write”) (> Low German wrieten, rieten (“to tear, split”)), German reißen (“to tear, rip”), Norwegian rita (“to rough-sketch, carve, write”), Swedish rita (“to draw, design, delineate, model”), Icelandic ríta, rita (“to inscribe, sketch, write”), German ritzen (“to carve, scratch”), Proto-Slavic *ryti (“to carve, engrave, dig”), Polish ryć (“to engrave, dig”), Czech rýt (“to engrave, dig”). See also rit and rat.
Words formed from write
- bewrite
- copy-on-write proxy
- co-write
- cross write
- don't forget to write
- forewrite
- ghost write
- ghost-write
- hand-written
- inwrite
- nothing to write home about
- overwrite
- read-write
- rewrite
- something to write home about
- teach to read and write
- that's all she wrote
- the jokes write themselves
- to write home about
- underwrite
- who writes this stuff
- write-ahead log
- write-ahead logging
- write-around
- write as separate words
- write-back
- writeback
- write blocker
- write checks one can't cash
- write cheques one can't cash
- write-down
- write down
- write for the drawer
- write head
- write-in
- write in
- write itself
- write-off
- write off
- write-onable
- write once
- write once, run anywhere
- write oneself into a corner
- write one's own ticket
- write-only
- write-only memory
- write out
- write over
- writer
- write the book
- write-through
- write up
- write-up
- writing
- writ large
- quick-write
- torn write
Phrases with write
Words that rhyme with write
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- slight
- Dwight
- height
- sight
- night
- sprite
- fight
- parasite
- site
- alight
- smite
- all right
- blight
- might
- mite
- skite
- cite
- indite
- lite
- outright
- plight
- bight
- excite
- ignite
- invite
- overnight
- uptight
- wight
- accite
- alright
- benight
- bewrite
- blite
- copyright
- despite
- dight
- disunite
- finite
- flite
- hight
- incite
- recite
- relight
- rewrite
- sleight
- spite
- spright
- wite
Questions about write
- What does write mean?
- Write means to form letters, words or symbols on a surface in order to communicate.
- What is write in Hindi?
- Write in Hindi is लिखना (likhnā). See Write meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use write in a sentence?
- He never phones me, but he does write occasionally.
- What part of speech is write?
- Write can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce write?
- Write is pronounced /ɹaɪt/.
- What is the past tense of write?
- The past tense of write is wrote.
Words near write in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: write (page history and authors); చెప్పు (Telugu) (page history and authors); എഴുതുക (Malayalam) (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: en-us-write.ogg, En-uk-to write.ogg.
Cite this entry: “write.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/write. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.