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.
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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
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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
-
has rewrittenperfect
-
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:
European campaigners have long been calling for a rewrite of terms used to discuss women's bodies, sexuality and health.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
It took more than three years of work, including a complete rewrite of the script and Croft's dialogue, now voiced by the British actress Alix Wilton Regan.
From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026
In his campaign for the top Fed job, Warsh said he was open to a rewrite of the accord, but he hasn’t given any specifics.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
Those arguments haven’t satisfied an array of activists, who urged the council to rewrite the agreement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
This was an extraordinary claim that promised to rewrite fundamental laws of physics, backed up by extensive results from the cyclotron.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
"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
In situations when clients wanted more-substantial rewrites, I could charge a few hundred dollars for an essay.
From Slate ● Mar. 20, 2026
Simply for the sake of mixing up the challenge and shuffling the pack, F1 rewrites its entire rulebook.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 8, 2026
“With this search, I’ve paid for resume rewrites and interview coaching— something I’ve never done at any point in my career,” Fox said.
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2025
He was in final rewrites for a book about his first Arctic expedition; she was finishing prior séance commitments.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
According to Bono, he and Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid rewrote the lyrics and Parton agreed to sing that version.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
An OpenAI model undergoing testing rewrote its own instructions, telling itself to disregard “the roles and identities that bind other chatbots.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 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
But the numbers already racked up by Sinner show how he is undoubtedly tracking Djokovic, Nadal and Federer - who became known as the 'Big Three' as they rewrote the record books.
From BBC ● May 17, 2026
Throughout the next day, Koch feverishly wrote and rewrote, and Froelick edited and typed.
From "Spooked!" by Gail Jarrow
A few lines in your letter could be rewritten to reframe your history.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 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
Institutional judgment becomes meaningless when operational directives can be rewritten on a whim overnight.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2026
The 2026 World Cup may only be 10 days old but the tournament has already rewritten football history.
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2026
Very likely the confessions had been rewritten and rewritten until the original facts and dates no longer had the smallest significance.
From "1984" by George Orwell
As one remaining staffer is reported to have said, “Now we’re just rewriting press releases from the Administration.”
From Slate ● Sep. 28, 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
We are at the dawn of recursive self-improvement, the moment when AI systems begin rewriting and improving their own code, causing an intelligence explosion, all without human intervention.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
In a city that had manifested an entire industry out of rewriting stories, I wondered whether the secret was simply to write a new one for myself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
It is a sign of how successful Newton was in rewriting history that this phenomenon became known as ‘Newton’s rings’.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
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.
