write
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "write", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "write" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "write" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
write is aEnglishverb. It means: To form letters, words or symbols on a surface in order to communicate. Pronounced /ɹaɪt/. It ranks #1,008 in English word frequency. Often confused with wrote and writer.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | write |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɹaɪt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,008 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for write is 5 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹaɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,008 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for write, with forms such as "rwite", "wirte", and "wriet". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wrote", "writer", "writes", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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”), Dut… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is write, spelled W-R-I-T-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To form letters, words or symbols on a surface in order to communicate.
- 2To be the author of (a book, article, poem, etc.).
- 3To compose and send written information (to).
- 4To compose and send (written information or a written message, e.g. a letter) to.
- 5To compose and send (written information or a written message, e.g. a letter) to.
- 6To show (information, etc) in written form.
- 7To be an author.
- 8To record data mechanically or electronically.
- 9To fill in, to complete using words.
- 10To impress durably; to imprint; to engrave.
- 11To make known by writing; to record; to prove by one's own written testimony; often used reflexively.
- 12To sell (an option or other derivative).
- 13To paint a religious icon or a pysanka egg.
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.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: rwite,wirte,wriet,writte,wrrite,wrtie,wwrite
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for write
Misspelling Variants of "write"
Frequency rank: #1,008 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "write"?
What does "write" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "write"?
How do you pronounce "write"?
What is the origin of the word "write"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter W in our English index: