scribe

¹ American  

[skrahyb] / skraɪb /

noun

1. a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of printing.

2. a public clerk or writer, usually one having official status.

3. Also called sopher, sofer.  Judaism. one of the group of Palestinian scholars and teachers of Jewish law and tradition, active from the 5th century b.c. to the 1st century a.d., who transcribed, edited, and interpreted the Bible.

4. a writer or author, especially a journalist.

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verb (used without object)

scribed, scribing

1. to act as a scribe; write.

verb (used with object)

scribed, scribing

1. to write down.

scribe ² American  

[skrahyb] / skraɪb /

verb (used with object)

scribed, scribing

1. to mark or score (wood or the like) with a pointed instrument as a guide to cutting or assembling.

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noun

1. scriber.

Scribe ³ American  

[skreeb] / skrib /

noun

1. Augustin Eugène 1791–1861, French dramatist.

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scribe ¹ British  

/ skraɪb /

noun

1. a person who copies documents, esp a person who made handwritten copies before the invention of printing

2. a clerk or public copyist

3. Old Testament a recognized scholar and teacher of the Jewish Law

4. Judaism a man qualified to write certain documents in accordance with religious requirements

5. an author or journalist: used humorously

6. another name for scriber

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verb

1. to score a line on (a surface) with a pointed instrument, as in metalworking

Scribe ² British  

/ skrib /

noun

1. Augustin Eugène (oɡystɛ̃ øʒɛn). 1791–1861, French author or coauthor of over 350 vaudevilles, comedies, and libretti for light opera

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Other Word Forms

• scribal adjective
• unscribal adjective

Etymology

Origin of scribe¹

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin scrība clerk, derivative of scrībere to write

Origin of scribe²

First recorded in 1670–80; perhaps aphetic form of inscribe

Example Sentences

Or as one scribe put it, the school didn’t want to be dwarfed by “a gigantic breakfast side dish.”

From MarketWatch • Dec. 12, 2025

The plasticity of digital information is superseding earlier modes of expression and expertise, as the printing press did the scribe.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025

My A.I. scribe has restored the joy to my practice, an experience that is not quantifiable in a metric but which my patients and I can feel in our bones.

From Slate • Aug. 19, 2025

Or, rather, her second Tony, as “Oh, Mary!” scribe and star Cole Escola so studiously noted as they accepted their Tony for best actor in a play at Sunday’s Tony Awards ceremony.

From Salon • Jun. 9, 2025

Just the shaky letters of an amateur scribe.

From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz

Related Words

• author
• journalist
• writer