Word: write Part of Speech: verb 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: /ɹaɪt/, [ɹaɪt], /ɹəɪt/, [ɹəɪʔ], [ɹɑjt] 1. To form letters, words or symbols on a surface in order to communicate. Labels: ambitransitive Example: The pupil wrote his name on the paper. Example: Your son has been writing on the wall. 2. To be the author of (a book, article, poem, etc.). Labels: transitive Example: My uncle writes newspaper articles for The Herald. Example: Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language[…]; his clerks, however, understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there. 3. To compose and send written information (to). Labels: intransitive Example: Please write to me when you get there. Example: Please write me when you get there. 4. To compose and send (written information or a written message, e.g. a letter) to. Labels: ditransitive Example: Please write me a letter. Please write a letter to me. 5. To compose and send (written information or a written message, e.g. a letter) to. Labels: ditransitive Example: Jimmy wrote me that he needs more money. Example: Do you know, one man actually wrote me he thought he could almost shave with the back of the blade, the lather "mellowed" his beard so. 6. To show (information, etc) in written form. Labels: transitive Example: The due day of the homework is written in the syllabus. Example: Ghana's motto, writ large on the gleaming white Independence Arch that overlooks the Atlantic in Accra, is "Freedom and Justice." 7. To be an author. Labels: intransitive Example: I write for a living. Example: I said that I did not believe anyone could write any way except the very best he could write without destroying his talent. 8. To record data mechanically or electronically. Labels: intransitive Example: The computer writes to the disk faster than it reads from it. 9. To fill in, to complete using words. Labels: Canada, South-Africa, transitive, usually Example: I was very anxious to know my score after I wrote the test. Example: Kúnlé had failed biology and chemistry, key requirements for admission into any medical school in the country. Kúnlé’s father wanted him to write the exams again. 10. To impress durably; to imprint; to engrave. Example: truth written on the heart Example: 14 For when the Gentiles which haue not the Law, doe by nature the things contained in the Law: these hauing not the Law, are a Law vnto themselues, 15 Which shew the worke of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witnesse, and their thoughts the meane while accusing, or else excusing one another: 11. To make known by writing; to record; to prove by one's own written testimony; often used reflexively. Example: Thoſe walled garriſons will I ſubdue, And write my ſelfe great Lord of Affrica: So from the Eaſt vnto the furtheſt Weſt, Shall Tamburlaine extend his puiſant arme. Example: He who writes himself Martyr 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. 12. To sell (an option or other derivative). 13. To paint a religious icon or a pysanka egg.