Word.ws English Dictionary

write-in

/ˈɹaɪtˌɪn/

write-in noun: a candidate whose name is not listed on the ballot.

Noun

write-in (plural write-ins)

  1. (attributive, often) A candidate whose name is not listed on the ballot.
    • He won a write-in campaign for Youngstown school board in 2015; he joined the Green Party last year.2019 February 19, Jeremy Pelzer, “Youngstown School Board member Dario Hunter seeks Green Party presidential nomination”, in cleveland.com, archived from the original on 16 Apr 2019
  2. (attributive, often) A vote made for a candidate of this kind.
  3. (attributive, often) A social event for authors, at which they meet up to work on their writing together.
    • NaNoWriMo also provides free resources and curriculum globally to over 80,000 students and educators in 2,000 classrooms. In addition a host of volunteers provide write-ins and events in 500 regions.2015 February 19, Roy Baldwin, Mauveine, Creative Gateway
    • If you have come to a point where you just don't know where to go next in the story, going to a write-in can be a huge help.2017 August 13, HowExpert, Nicole Thomas, NaNoWriMo 101: A Quick Guide on How to Write a Novel in 30 Days During National Novel Writing Mont, HowExpert, →ISBN, page 22
  4. (attributive, derogatory, often, crosswording) A clue or puzzle that is so easy that the answer is immediately obvious.
    • Normally, when the first clue is a write-in, I think I am in for an easy time, but not here: there is enough misdirection to keep most of us on our toes, and the bottom half remained nearly empty for far too long.2019 July 9, PeterO, “Guardian Cryptic 27,868 by Pasquale”, in Fifteensquared
    • Elsewhere there was a capital that crops up every now and then and which I never remember, and much that will have been a write-in for regular solvers.2024 November 13, “i Cryptic Crossword 4297 by Tees”, in idothei

Forms of write-in

pluralwrite-ins

Origin of write-in

Deverbal from write in. So called because anybody wishing to vote for such a candidate must explicitly write the candidate's name on the ballot.

Questions about write-in

What does write-in mean?
Write-in means a candidate whose name is not listed on the ballot.
What part of speech is write-in?
Write-in is a noun.
How do you pronounce write-in?
Write-in is pronounced /ˈɹaɪtˌɪn/.
What is the plural of write-in?
The plural of write-in is write-ins.

Words near write-in in the dictionary

  1. write-around
  2. write-back
  3. write-backs
  4. write-down
  5. write-downs
  6. write-in
  7. write-ins
  8. write-off
  9. write-offs
  10. write-onable
  11. write-only

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: write-in (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.

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