writing

[rahy-ting]

noun

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

2. written written form.

   to commit one's thoughts to writing.

3. that which is written; written; characters or matter written 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 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.

writing

/ 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

Other Word Forms

• self-writing adjective
• unwriting adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of writing¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of writing¹

sense 8: allusion to Daniel 5:5

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. writing on the wall. handwriting.

Example Sentences

As Kiera Butler and Anna Merlan at Mother Jones documented, Means veers “in a more New Age direction” in her “medical” writing.

Read more on Salon

This hub quickly emerged as one of Robinhood’s fastest-growing product lines by revenue, with the company writing in its third-quarter earnings release that the predictions market segment was “growing rapidly.”

Read more on Barron's

Days after his release, Sarkozy's team announced the former president was writing a book about his three weeks in jail, titled "A prisoner's diary".

Read more on BBC

Many parents writing up toy lists are coping with higher childcare bills, plus knock-on tariff costs steeped into prices.

Read more on MarketWatch

Top use cases included writing emails, conducting research, managing expenses, and shopping.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

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