indite

American  

[in-dahyt] / ɪnˈdaɪt /

verb (used with object)

indites, present (3rd person singular) indited, past participle, past inditing present participle

1. to compose or write, as a poem.

2. to treat in a literary composition.

3. Obsolete. to dictate.

4. Obsolete. to prescribe.

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indite British  

/ ɪnˈdaɪt /

verb

1. archaic to write

2. obsolete to dictate

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Usage

Indite and inditement are sometimes wrongly used where indict and indictment are meant: he was indicted (not indited ) for fraud

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• inditement
  noun
• inditer
  noun

Inflected Forms

Participles

• inditing
  present
• indited
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• indite
  simple
• indites
  simple
• have indited
  perfect
• has indited
  perfect
• am inditing
  progressive
• are inditing
  progressive
• is inditing
  progressive
• have been inditing
  perfect progressive
• has been inditing
  perfect progressive

Past

• indited
  simple
• had indited
  perfect
• was inditing
  progressive
• were inditing
  progressive
• had been inditing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will indite
  simple
• will have indited
  perfect
• will be inditing
  progressive
• will have been inditing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of indite

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English enditen, from Old French enditer, from unattested Vulgar Latin indictāre, derivative of Latin indictus, past participle of indīcere “to announce, proclaim”; see in- ², dictum

Explanation

The verb indite, rarely used today, means "compose" or "put down in writing," like when you find a quiet place to sit down with your notebook and pen and indite a journal entry or a first draft of a short story. To indite is to write something creative — you indite a letter, and jot a grocery list. Don't confuse indite with its homophone indict, which means "to charge with a crime." Both come from the Latin word dictare, meaning “to declare.” Even if you indite a really bad poem, critics won't indict you.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

indite indites indited inditing

I was about to indite my valedictory; then came your manifesto�Dec. 29 issue�affirming your determination to hold fast to all those virtues for the presumed jettisoning of which I was about to leave you.

From Time Magazine Archive

Even in the White House he never dictated or used a typewriter, "and the number of letters he could indite with his own heavy fist was limited."

From Time Magazine Archive

He that would triumph over the petty trickery of fate must indite history at its source.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

These are clearly not the men to indite the Wild Sports and Natural History of the North.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 372, October 1846 by Various

He smiled as he slipped into the sitting-room to indite a line "To the Sleeping Beauty."

From The Higher Court by Daggett, Mary Stewart

Like Jenkins when he writes,   It can not touch the mind; Unlike what he indites,   No nausea leaves behind.

From The Humorous Poetry of the English Language; from Chaucer to Saxe by Parton, James

While his meal is being served in his parlor, he indites a note to Hardin's political Mark Antony.

From The Little Lady of Lagunitas A Franco-Californian Romance by Savage, Richard

The Graces hold his inkstand for him when he indites the sonnets which, with such delicate cadences, he reads in the Accademia degli Arcadi.

From The Prose Writings of Heinrich Heine by Heine, Heinrich

There are phrases that make you writhe, such as "the etymology of the mansion's designation", and the shocking persistency with which Charlotte Brontë "indites", "peruses", and "retains".

From The Three Brontës by Sinclair, May

Colonel Valois indites to Judge Philip Hardin a letter of last requests.

From The Little Lady of Lagunitas A Franco-Californian Romance by Savage, Richard

Readers ascertained on closer scrutiny that Mr. Rogers was permitting this journal to publish a series of open epistles indited by him to Calvin Coolidge.

From Time Magazine Archive

Rushing to Washington, Congressman Linthicum indited invitations to all 71st House members to attend a Wet Bloc organization meeting early in December.

From Time Magazine Archive

He indited the script to "Emperors, Kings, Dukes, Marquises, Earls and Knights," full knowing that the house of Polo would profit by the advertisement.

From Time Magazine Archive

Soon the compromise was indited, the bargain between miners and owners sealed, the strike averted.

From Time Magazine Archive

Nearly cotemporaneously with Mildred's letter-writing, her mother also indited two epistles.

From Trevethlan (Vol 3 of 3) A Cornish Story. by Watson, William Davy

Two only out of the ten witnesses have gratified him by inditing, at his request, weak and guarded complaints of unfair treatment.

From Abraham Lincoln: Was He A Christian? by Remsburg, John B.

When Citzewitz at the termination of a debate asked: "Who undertakes the inditing?" all the councillors cried in chorus: "That's Solomon's business," for that was the nickname they had bestowed upon him.

From Bartholomew Sastrow Being the Memoirs of a German Burgomaster by Sastrow, Bartholomew

There was Governor Burnet, looking as if he had just received an undutiful communication from the House of Representatives, and were inditing a most sharp response.

From International Short Stories American by Various

The Captain was not long in inditing a short note to Scanlan, to whom, "strictly confidential," Mr. Merl was introduced as a great capitalist and speculator, desirous to ascertain all the resources of the land.

From The Martins Of Cro' Martin, Vol. II (of II) by Lever, Charles James

The production is a remarkable one, as well as the inditing of it a very singular phenomenon.

From Marital Power Exemplified in Mrs. Packard's Trial, and Self-Defence from the Charge of Insanity by Packard, Elizabeth Parsons Ware