indite
Americanverb (used with object)
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indites,
present (3rd person singular)
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indited,
past participle, past
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inditing
present participle
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to compose or write, as a poem.
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to treat in a literary composition.
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Obsolete. to dictate.
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Obsolete. to prescribe.
verb
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archaic to write
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obsolete to dictate
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
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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inditesimple
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inditessimple
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have inditedperfect
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has inditedperfect
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am inditingprogressive
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are inditingprogressive
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is inditingprogressive
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have been inditingperfect progressive
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has been inditingperfect progressive
Past
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inditedsimple
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had inditedperfect
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was inditingprogressive
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were inditingprogressive
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had been inditingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing indite
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Commonly Confused Words, List 5
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The Once and Future King
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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:
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
It is thus denied by some writers who have been at pains to indite learned books upon the subject.
From Stories about Famous Precious Stones by Mrs Goddard Orpen
I love the fair, who freely gives her heart, That's mine by ties of nature, not of art; Who boldly owns whate'er her thoughts indite, And is too modest for a hypocrite.
From The Inconstant by George Farquhar
How long might I sit here, the image of despair, and what despair on monumental marble, as desolate as the poet with fixed eye, unable to indite a line?
From Papers from Overlook-House by Casper Almore
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 Richard Savage
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 Heinrich Heine
He rings for Barney, and indites a note to his foreman at the "Golden Chariot."
From The Little Lady of Lagunitas A Franco-Californian Romance by Richard Savage
Death hesitates, but, urged by Fate, he indites his answer, refusing to comply with Lucifer’s request.
From The Visions of the Sleeping Bard by Robert Gwyneddon Davies
Every day she sits in the sunshine and reads her books or indites letters to her friends.
From Rosemary and Rue by Amber
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
There were dear little pressing invitations signed by the lady of the house, and indited in all the caligraphy of the governess.
From Roland Cashel Volume I (of II) by Charles James Lever
Then the young people sent notes to their friends in the other saloon, the young men inditing love-letters.
From Froth by Armando Palacio Vald?s
His military fever was slowly burning itself out, though he was able to fan the embers into flame when, later, he was inditing the adventures of "Maurice Tiernay."
From Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters, Vol. I by Edmund Downey
Barron was busily employed in inditing the epistle, and when it was delivered, the two officers came out together.
From Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors: Tales of 1812 by James Barnes
He comes up to the inditing of each epistle with the determined smile of a much battered pugilist, when a new round is called—and we are very much in his debt for his pluck.
From The Galaxy, April, 1877 Vol. XXIII.—April, 1877.—No. 4. by Various
Within the last twenty-four hours of his existence a new chapter had been opened before him in his book of fate—it was not his own inditing.
From Jasper Lyle by Harriet Ward
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
