write Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb produce a literary work
    pen; compose; indite.
    • She composed a poem
    • He wrote four novels
  2. verb communicate or express by writing
    • Please write to me every week
  3. verb have (one's written work) issued for publication
    publish.
    • How many books did Georges Simenon write?
    • She published 25 books during her long career
  4. verb communicate (with) in writing
    drop a line.
    • Write her soon, please!
  5. verb communicate by letter
    • He wrote that he would be coming soon
  6. verb write music
    compose.
    • Beethoven composed nine symphonies
  7. verb mark or trace on a surface
    • The artist wrote Chinese characters on a big piece of white paper
    • Russian is written with the Cyrillic alphabet
  8. verb record data on a computer
    save.
    • boot-up instructions are written on the hard disk
  9. verb write or name the letters that comprise the conventionally accepted form of (a word or part of a word)
    spell.
    • He spelled the word wrong in this letter
  10. verb create code, write a computer program
    • She writes code faster than anybody else

WordNet

Write transitive verb
Etymology
OE. writen, AS. writan; originally, to scratch, to score; akin to OS. writan to write, to tear, to wound, D. rijten to tear, to rend, G. reissen, OHG. rizan, Icel. rita to write, Goth. writs a stroke, dash, letter. Cf. Race tribe, lineage.
Wordforms
imperfect Wrote ; past participle Written ; archaic imperfect & past participle Writ ; present participle & verbal noun Writing
Definitions
  1. To set down, as legible characters; to form the conveyance of meaning; to inscribe on any material by a suitable instrument; as, to write the characters called letters; to write figures.
  2. To set down for reading; to express in legible or intelligible characters; to inscribe; as, to write a deed; to write a bill of divorcement; hence, specifically, to set down in an epistle; to communicate by letter.
    Last night she enjoined me to write some lines to one she loves. Shak.
    I chose to write the thing I durst not speak To her I loved. Prior.
  3. Hence, to compose or produce, as an author.
    I purpose to write the history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to a time within the memory of men still living. Macaulay.
  4. To impress durably; to imprint; to engrave; as, truth written on the heart.
  5. To make known by writing; to record; to prove by one's own written testimony; -- often used reflexively.
    He who writes himself by his own inscription is like an ill painter, who, by writing on a shapeless picture which he hath drawn, is fain to tell passengers what shape it is, which else no man could imagine. Milton.
Write intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To form characters, letters, or figures, as representative of sounds or ideas; to express words and sentences by written signs. Chaucer.
    So it stead you, I will write, Please you command. Shak.
  2. To be regularly employed or occupied in writing, copying, or accounting; to act as clerk or amanuensis; as, he writes in one of the public offices.
  3. To frame or combine ideas, and express them in written words; to play the author; to recite or relate in books; to compose.
    They can write up to the dignity and character of the authors. Felton.
  4. To compose or send letters.
    He wrote for all the Jews that went out of his realm up into Jewry concerning their freedom. 1 Esdras iv. 49.

Webster 1913