write

American  

[rahyt] / raɪt /

verb (used with object)

• writes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• wrote,
  past
• writ,
  past participle,  past (Archaic)
• written,
  past participle
• writing
  present participle

1. to trace or form (characters, letters, words, etc.) on the surface of some material, as with a pen, pencil, or other instrument or means; inscribe.

   Write your name on the board.

2. to express or communicate in writing; give a written account of.

   She wrote to thank us for the hospitality.

3. to fill in the blank spaces of (a printed form) with writing.

   to write a check.

4. to execute or produce by setting down words, figures, etc..

   to write two copies of a letter.

5. to compose and produce in words or characters duly set down.

   to write a letter to a friend.

6. to produce as author or composer.

   to write a sonnet;

   to write a symphony.

   Synonyms:

   create, draft, author, pen, compose

7. to trace significant characters on, or mark or cover with writing.

8. to cause to be apparent or unmistakable.

   Honesty is written on his face.

9. Computers. to transfer (information, data, programs, etc.) from storage to secondary storage or an output medium.

10. Stock Exchange. to sell (options).

11. to underwrite.

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verb (used without object)

• writes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• wrote,
  past
• writ,
  past participle,  past (Archaic)
• written,
  past participle
• writing
  present participle

1. to trace or form characters, words, etc., with a pen, pencil, or other instrument or means, or as a pen or the like does.

   He writes with a pen.

2. to write as a profession or occupation.

   She writes for the Daily Inquirer.

3. to express ideas in writing.

   He wrote about his trip to Borneo.

4. to write a letter or letters, or communicate by letter.

   Write if you get work.

5. to compose or work as a writer or author.

6. Computers. to transfer into a secondary storage device or output medium.

verb phrase

1. write up

   1. to put into writing, especially in full detail.

      My boss asked me to write up a report for the meeting on Monday, so I cancelled my plans and worked on it all weekend.

   2. to present to public notice in a written description or account.

   3. to document a violation, complaint, or charge against, especially in a recommendation for disciplinary action.

      Is it true that you were written up by your French teacher because you set a classroom dictionary on fire?

   4. Accounting. to make an excessive valuation of (an asset).

2. write off

   1. to cancel an entry in an account, as an unpaid and uncollectable debt.

   2. to regard as worthless, lost, obsolete, etc.; decide to forget.

      to write off their bad experience.

   3. to amortize.

      The new equipment was written off in three years.

3. write down

   1. to set down in writing; record; note.

   2. to direct one's writing to a less intelligent reader or audience.

      He writes down to the public.

4. write in

   1. to vote for (a candidate not listed on the ballot) by writing a full name rather than selecting an option on the ballot.

   2. to include in or add to a text by writing.

      Do not write in corrections on the galley.

   3. to request something by mail.

      If interested, please write in for details.

5. write out

   1. to put into writing.

   2. to write in full form; state completely.

   3. to exhaust the capacity or resources of by excessive writing.

      He's just another author who has written himself out.

write British  

/ raɪt /

verb

1. to draw or mark (symbols, words, etc) on a surface, usually paper, with a pen, pencil, or other instrument

2. to describe or record (ideas, experiences, etc) in writing

3. to compose (a letter) to or correspond regularly with (a person, organization, etc)

4. (tr; may take a clause as object) to say or communicate by letter

   he wrote that he was on his way

5. informal (tr) to send a letter to (a person, etc)

6. to write (words) in cursive as opposed to printed style

7. (tr) to be sufficiently familiar with (a specified style, language, etc) to use it in writing

8. to be the author or composer of (books, music, etc)

9. (tr) to fill in the details for (a document, form, etc)

10. (tr) to draw up or draft

11. (tr) to produce by writing

    he wrote ten pages

12. (tr) to show clearly

    envy was written all over his face

13. (tr) to spell, inscribe, or entitle

14. (tr) to ordain or prophesy

    it is written

15. (tr) to sit (an examination)

16. (intr) to produce writing as specified

17. computing to record (data) in a location in a storage device Compare read 1

18. (tr) Compare underwrite

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write Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing write

• nothing to write home about
• wrote

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• miswrite
  verb (used with object)
• writable
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• writing
  present
• writ
  past
• written
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• write
  simple
• writes
  simple
• have writ
  perfect
• have written
  perfect
• has writ
  perfect
• has written
  perfect
• am writing
  progressive
• are writing
  progressive
• is writing
  progressive
• have been writing
  perfect progressive
• has been writing
  perfect progressive

Past

• writ
  simple
• wrote
  simple
• had writ
  perfect
• had written
  perfect
• was writing
  progressive
• were writing
  progressive
• had been writing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will write
  simple
• will have writ
  perfect
• will have written
  perfect
• will be writing
  progressive
• will have been writing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of write

First recorded before 900; Middle English writen, Old English wrītan; cognate with Old Saxon wrītan “to cut, write,” German reissen “to tear, draw,” Old Norse rīta “to score, write”

Explanation

To write is to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. If you have trouble falling asleep, write down all the thoughts swimming around your head before getting into bed as a way to clear your mind. Write is the modern day spelling of the Old English writan, meaning “to score, outline, draw the figure of.” Now it has the sense of “to set down in writing.” You can write music, a short story, or computer code. You can write a letter, or write in cursive. You can write up an account of a burglary, or write down your feelings in a journal. Write on!

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

write writes writ wrote written writing

The All Blacks travelled to Cape Town knowing a win would write them into the history books as the first New Zealand team to win back-to-back Tests in South Africa since the 'Incomparables' of 1996.

From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026

Stanley Druckenmiller admitted he used A.I. to write an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.

From Slate ● Aug. 29, 2026

Mr. Hoser beat him to the punch, and this provoked the bested professional to write an article complaining that amateur herpetologists took shortcuts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 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

I ask the photographer, from my perch at Theo’s desk, the one that I am supposed to be pretending is my own desk as I write fictitious letters to the boys on the front.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse

“We’d talk about everything and nothing,” she writes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026

“Pound’s Cantos have their rewards, but the rewards come intermittently,” he writes of the poet’s eccentric magnum opus.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

After more than a century of powered flight, Mr. Kirsch writes, we “have not yet securely attached the upper atmosphere to the realm of human experience.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

By examining the belief in aliens, he writes, we “can help clarify some of the primary social and spiritual quandaries of our time, even—or especially—if UFOs don’t actually exist.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

No one writes back anyway, not even LaToya, even though she promised she would.

From "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones

The VC industry writ large has made a huge push into companies contributing to the physical build-out of AI, as it becomes increasingly clear that sustaining AI’s fast growth will require significantly more infrastructure.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

It represents a leap in the evolution of Saar’s work — her smaller scale imaginings now writ large.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

Reform MP Lee Anderson moved the writ in the Commons on Thursday morning, meaning there will be a likely by-election date of Thursday, 13 August, though this has yet to be confirmed.

From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026

It’s also easy to imagine video game companies writ large choosing to slash budgets by removing their own disc drives as hardware becomes far more expensive to produce, thanks to the A.I.-induced memory-processor shortage.

From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026

Well, here ’tis—tell ’er not to blieve mor’n half of what is writ in it.”

From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt

Desperate to split, she wrote “I Will Always Love You,” presenting their increasingly toxic dynamic as one-sided—and taking most of the blame: “If I should stay/I would only be in your way.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026

Sir James, who was foreign secretary under former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, wrote that he intended to make London a city to be proud of again.

From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026

Eric came to our gym, interviewed players about what an incredible teammate he was and wrote a fantastic story.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

“A terrible situation and terrible negligence on the part of those who stored explosives right next to people,” Zelensky wrote on X, adding that an investigation into Friday’s incident was under way.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

She wrote a false letter to the New York court, pretending to be Ferdie and Henry’s British relative, “Uncle Edward.”

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock

Owen Lamont, portfolio manager at Acadian Asset Management, has written that excessive use of leverage by retail investors is a sign that the market is turning frothy.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 30, 2026

Their mother taught them at home using educational materials written from a biblical worldview.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026

Like many of the best covers, Harris sings this young girl’s chronicle of her long-suffering mother’s sacrifices with such natural assurance that you’d think “To Daddy” had been written for her.

From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026

They were written in Kansas City, Mo., by a private nonprofit.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

Still, the busted lock and the window lights and the missing map had Tarbox written all over them.

From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck

"But in principle, nothing prevents us from writing down physical equations for a larger number of dimensions -- five dimensions, forty-two dimensions, or even infinitely many."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026

Kendrick also attacked Callaway’s decision, writing on X: “Interesting that @CallawayGolf asks us to make an ad then approves it then asks us to take the fall then drops us in a coordinated media blitz.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

Flying Food Group vehemently denied the substance of the complaint, writing in its statement that “images were staged, manipulated, taken out of context, or otherwise presented in a manner that distorts their meaning.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

During pregnancy, my symptoms largely disappeared, my walking improved as did my dexterity in typing and writing.

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026

I think of Jonah winning the creative writing prize, and that rejection from the writing intensive, and Dad’s response when he read my story in the literary magazine.

From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison

Related Words

• address
• compose
• create
• draft
• note
• pen
• print
• record
• rewrite
• scrawl
• scribble
• sign
• tell