rewrite
Americanverb (used with object)
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rewrites,
present (3rd person singular)
-
rewrote,
past
-
rewritten,
past participle
-
rewriting
present participle
-
to write in a different form or manner; revise.
to rewrite the entire book.
-
to write again.
-
to write (news submitted by a reporter) for inclusion in a newspaper.
noun
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rewrites
plural
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the news story rewritten.
-
something written in a different form or manner; revision.
They loved the rewrite, and said it would be a blockbuster!
verb
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to write (written material) again, esp changing the words or form
-
computing to return (data) to a store when it has been erased during reading
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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rewritesimple
-
rewritessimple
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have rewrittenperfect
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has rewrittenperfect
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am rewritingprogressive
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are rewritingprogressive
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is rewritingprogressive
-
have been rewritingperfect progressive
-
has been rewritingperfect progressive
Past
-
rewrotesimple
-
had rewrittenperfect
-
was rewritingprogressive
-
were rewritingprogressive
-
had been rewritingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rewrite
Explanation
When you rewrite something, you start from scratch, writing it again to improve it. You might decide to rewrite a poem after your entire poetry class seems confused by your original version. A newspaper editor might instruct a reporter to rewrite her story, approaching it from a new angle or including more interviews. To rewrite something is to edit it, but the word implies making significant changes — or even starting all over again with a blank piece of paper or computer screen. You can call the new version itself a rewrite too. In journalism, it was once common for a "rewrite man" to work crafting new stories out of other people's reporting.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The state initially refused to ratify the 1922 compact at all, provoking the other states to rewrite the document so it would go into effect with the approval of only six states rather than seven.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
AI can already write code and rewrite emails and summarize meetings and prove abstract math conjectures and figure out why your washing machine keeps making that strange beeping noise.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
Mr. Sullivan’s challenge is to refute this remarkable rewrite of recent history.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
To keep them secret, Abramovich's associates and Meritservus decided to rewrite history.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
Briony would change her evidence, she would rewrite the past so that the guilty became the innocent.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
That Ms. Browne has risen to that difficult task twice, expertly revising her earlier effort, would have pleased Darwin, that master of rewrites.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
"The study rewrites the timeline for the koala's genetic history in Australia," says PhD student Toby Kovacs, who led the research.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026
When Euphoria first launched, it quickly became one of the defining shows of its generation, but after a five-year break marked by strikes, rewrites and cast departures, it returned to a noticeably more divided response.
From BBC ● May 30, 2026
In situations when clients wanted more-substantial rewrites, I could charge a few hundred dollars for an essay.
From Slate ● Mar. 20, 2026
"Rehearsal then rewrites then Will on the phone then bed. You can sit in on rehearsal if you want."
From "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan
Some players, including Brooks Koepka, have since returned to the PGA Tour, which rewrote its rules in December to allow the five-time major winner to come back, subject to certain sanctions.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
Congress rewrote the charitable-deduction rules, effective Jan. 1, 2026, with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and every change pushed value away from the deduction and toward your adjusted gross income.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
“The bill rewrote the math on charitable giving,” says Kevin Knull, chief executive officer of TaxStatus.
From Barron's ● May 9, 2026
Playwright Jonathan Spector rewrote lines in “Eureka Day” because laughter drowned out key dialogue and backstage cues.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
He wrote and rewrote the e-mail, not mentioning his wife or using the first person plural, trying for a balance between earnest and funny.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Student List is fielding candidates from across Serbian society - and as he joined students marching towards Belgrade, lead candidate and cardiologist Ilija Srdanović said history was being rewritten: "The energy is unstoppable."
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026
A few lines in your letter could be rewritten to reframe your history.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
Some of those scripts no doubt originated in newspapers and had been rewritten twice by the time they reached the studio.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
However, he also said that the compact is woefully out of date and should be scrapped and rewritten to match the reality of the shrinking river.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
The recommendation of the research department was that Archie Bunker be rewritten as a soft-spoken and nurturing father.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
An archaeological site in the Jordan Valley is rewriting the timeline of early human migration.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 27, 2026
Others, however, will insist the rewriting of history is the only way of restoring the competition's official record, and rewarding clubs that competed within the rules.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
A player who is rewriting the NFL record book is more likely to come back and torch the Giants than to have two poor performances in a row.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
The same caution goes for rewriting the product liability or antitrust laws to let the firms cooperate to define and police the AI frontier.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
She had to read every story and every feature, plus she would help kids with their rewriting and revising.
From "The Landry News" by Andrew Clements
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