writing

American  

[rahy-ting] / ˈraɪ tɪŋ /

noun

1. the act of a person or thing that writes.

2. written form.

   to commit one's thoughts to writing.

3. that which is written; characters or matter written with a pen or the like.

   His writing is illegible.

4. such characters or matter with respect to style, kind, quality, etc.

5. an inscription.

6. a letter.

7. any written or printed paper, as a document or deed.

8. literary or musical style, form, quality, technique, etc..

   Her writing is stilted.

9. a literary composition or production.

10. the profession of a writer.

    He turned to writing at an early age.

11. the Writings, Hagiographa.

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idioms

1. writing on the wall. handwriting.

writing British  

/ ˈraɪtɪŋ /

noun

1. a group of letters or symbols written or marked on a surface as a means of communicating ideas by making each symbol stand for an idea, concept, or thing, by using each symbol to represent a set of sounds grouped into syllables ( syllabic writing ), or by regarding each symbol as corresponding roughly or exactly to each of the sounds in the language ( alphabetic writing ) See also ideogram

2. short for handwriting

3. anything expressed in letters, esp a literary composition

4. the work of a writer

5. literary style, art, or practice

6. written form

   give it to me in writing

7. (modifier) related to or used in writing

   writing ink

8. a sign or signs of approaching disaster

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Other Word Forms

• self-writing
  adjective
• unwriting
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of writing

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English; write + -ing ¹

Explanation

Writing is the act of putting pen to paper...or fingers to keyboard...or even thumbs to phone pad. Any time you record language in script, whether that's a tweet or the next great American novel, you're writing. If you promise your first-born son to the strange lady next door, she might say, "put it in writing," which means she's probably not a witch and relies on the law to get things done, because things written down are more binding than mere speech. You can also use writing to refer to the collected work of a single author or group. You might adore the writing of Mark Twain. Or do you prefer writing about vampires?

Example Sentences

I ask Ferrer how she navigates writing about Cuba in a landscape where even scholarship and reporting is often read as political argument.

From Los Angeles Times • May 19, 2026

In the same exchange, Chopra took the conversation to a different level, writing: “Atoms galaxies mind body are hallucinations that imprison humanity. We have to get rid of 2000 years of human conditioning.”

From Salon • May 19, 2026

But then, with a blank expression and wide eyes, he struck back, saying Musk in 2017 had demanded "90 percent of the equity" and "refused to commit in writing" to sharing power.

From Barron's • May 18, 2026

Ben joined the Journal from Bloomberg News in 2019, where he first started writing about the aviation industry, European defense companies, and British business and politics.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 18, 2026

I could freeze again, like I did when we were supposed to write about our names on the first day of writing class and my mind went blank.

From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison

Related Words

• article
• book
• document
• essay
• letter
• literature
• manuscript
• novel
• paper
• piece
• poem
• prose
• publication
• review
• theme
• work