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
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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
We have a great mind, at some future moment of leisure, to indite an article on the subject, and vindicate, in all its antiquity, the speech of Ossian and of Adam.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 370, August 1846 by Various
Let me remind you of that fine old ballad: To you fair ladies now at Land We men at Sea indite; But first would have you understand How hard it is to write.
From The Passionate Elopement by Compton MacKenzie
"Who should indite it but I myself, sinner as I am?" replied Sancho.
From The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
They fortunately do not meet; but James, ordering pen and paper, sits down and indites a letter.
From The Dodd Family Abroad, Vol. II by Charles James Lever
Hear how learned Greece her useful rules indites, When to repress and when indulge our flights.
From An Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope
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 May Sinclair
The pen engraves for every art and indites for every press.
From The Choctaw Freedmen and The Story of Oak Hill Industrial Academy by Robert Elliott Flickinger
All letters of business are subject to the order of the one who indites them, allowing the holder the privilege of retaining a copy.
From Secret Band of Brothers A Full and True Exposition of All the Various Crimes, Villanies, and Misdeeds of This Powerful Organization in the United States. by Jonathan Harrington Green
Soon the compromise was indited, the bargain between miners and owners sealed, the strike averted.
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
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
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
I thought so as I indited a letter, and addressed it to the “Dona Mercedes Villa-Señor.”
From The Bandolero A Marriage among the Mountains by Mayne Reid
You take it in your hand And set yourself a-writing; No matter what you've planned, The truth 'twill be inditing.
From The Zankiwank and The Bletherwitch An Original Fantastic Fairy Extravaganza by S. J. Adair Fitzgerald
His first halt was at a village called Hoser, where he halted for one night, which he employed in inditing the report to Pekin, which described the successes and movements of the previous three weeks.
From The Life of Yakoob Beg Athalik Ghazi, and Badaulet; Ameer of Kashgar by Demetrius Charles Boulger
Glancing hastily upwards, I—yes I, in the body at this present, inditing this faithful description of my chase,—saw, not a hundred paces from me, an enormous vulture!
From The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 3, October, 1851 by Various
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
Only imagine one of these despairing backwoodsmen inditing an Ovidian epistle to his unknown mistress—"down east,"—wooing her to come and be wooed!
From Sketches in Canada, and rambles among the red men by Mrs. (Anna) Jameson
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