write

English Online Dictionary. What means write‎? What does write mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English writen, from Old English wrītan, from Proto-West Germanic *wrītan, from Proto-Germanic *wrītaną (“to carve, write”), from Proto-Indo-European *wrey- (“to rip, tear”).

Cognate with West Frisian write (“to wear by rubbing, rip, tear”), Dutch wrijten (“to argue, quarrel”), Middle Low German wrîten (“to scratch, draw, write”) (> Low German wrieten, rieten (“to tear, split”)), German reißen (“to tear, rip”), Norwegian rita (“to rough-sketch, carve, write”), Swedish rita (“to draw, design, delineate, model”), Icelandic rita (“to cut, scratch, write”), German ritzen (“to carve, scratch”), Proto-Slavic *ryti (“to carve, engrave, dig”), Polish ryć (“to engrave, dig”), Czech rýt (“to engrave, dig”). See also rit and rat.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: rīt, IPA^(key): /ɹaɪt/
• (MLE, Jamaica) IPA^(key): /ɹæ̙ːt/, /ɹæ̙ːʔ/
• Rhymes: -aɪt
• Homophones: right, rite, wright

Verb

write (third-person singular simple present writes, present participle writing, simple past wrote or (archaic) writ, past participle written or (archaic) writ or (obsolete) ywriten)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To form letters, words or symbols on a surface in order to communicate.

2. (transitive) To be the author of (a book, article, poem, etc.).
3. (transitive) To send written information to.

4. (transitive) To show (information, etc) in written form.
5. (ditransitive with relative clause) To convey a fact to someone via writing.
6. (intransitive) To be an author.
7. (computing, intransitive, with to) To record data mechanically or electronically.

8. (transitive, South Africa, Canada, of an exam, a document, etc.) To fill in, to complete using words.
9. To impress durably; to imprint; to engrave.
10. To make known by writing; to record; to prove by one's own written testimony; often used reflexively.
11. (finance) To sell (an option or other derivative).
12. (chiefly Eastern Orthodoxy) To paint a religious icon.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (form letters, words or symbols in order to communicate): inscribe, scrawl (indistinctly), scribble (quickly or imprecisely)
• (be the author of): author, pen
• (send (a letter) to): to post
• (show (information, etc) in written form): display, indicate, mark, show
• (computing: store (data)): save, store
• (fill in, complete): sit (Commonwealth)
• See also Thesaurus:write

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “computing: store (data)”): load, read, retrieve

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

write (plural writes)

1. The act or style of writing.
2. (computing) The operation of storing data, as in memory or onto disk.

Derived terms

• quick-write

References

• “write”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “write”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• twier, twire

Middle English

Verb

write

1. Alternative form of writen

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwriː.te/
• IPA^(key): /ˈwri.te/

Verb

wrīte

1. inflection of wrītan:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. singular present subjunctive

Verb

write

1. inflection of wrītan:
   1. second-person singular preterite indicative
   2. singular preterite subjunctive

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian wrīta, from Proto-West Germanic *wrītan. Cognate with English write, Dutch wrijten.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvritə/

Verb

write

1. to rip, to tear
2. to be painful, to sting

Inflection

Further reading

“write”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011