typewriter
Americannoun
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a machine for writing mechanically in letters and characters like those produced by printers' types.
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Printing. a type style that gives the appearance of typewritten copy.
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Older Use. a typist.
noun
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a keyboard machine for writing mechanically in characters resembling print. It may be operated entirely by hand ( manual typewriter ) or be powered by electricity ( electric typewriter )
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printing a style of type resembling typescript
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of typewriter
Explanation
A typewriter is an old-fashioned machine for printing letters, school assignments, and other written works. Each key on a typewriter prints a single letter, number, or symbol in ink on a piece of paper. There are similarities between a computer keyboard and a typewriter — you use both by pressing one key at a time. But instead of watching a cursor move across a screen as you type (moving backwards easily, automatically deleting mistakes), a typewriter makes a physical mark on paper. Instead of printing your letter out (or emailing it), when you use a typewriter, you create the final product as you go, simply pulling it out of the typewriter when you finish.
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.
“The Typewriter and the Guillotine” covers the New Yorker’s first years and charts its course as the magazine figured out what it aimed to be.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 19, 2026
Flanner and Weidmann are the subjects of Mark Braude’s “The Typewriter and the Guillotine,” an absorbing, expertly paced work of narrative nonfiction.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 19, 2026
The finale, at London's Royal Albert Hall, also starred comedian Bill Bailey, who played Leroy Anderson's 1950 classic The Typewriter on… well, a typewriter.
From BBC • Sep. 13, 2025
In addition to making the rounds at go-to venues like Dynasty Typewriter, the Comedy Store and the Laugh Factory, last summer Liao was included in Just for Laughs Festival’s New Faces of Comedy showcase.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 17, 2024
In December 1950, the Underwood Typewriter Company gives Joey a brand-new typewriter.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
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.
