write
/ɹəɪt/verb, noun
write is spelled W-R-I-T-E. The wrong spelling people search most is wriet: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 370 of all searches for the word. Write is a verb meaning “To form letters, words or symbols on a surface in order to communicate”.
How many letters and syllables are in write?
| Letters | 5: W-R-I-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 107 times per million words; the 996th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, wriet, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell write?
Write is spelled W-R-I-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 366 of the searches for write in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is write?
Write appears 107 times per million words in written English, the 996th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce write?
- /ɹaɪt/
- UK [ɹaɪt]
- US /ɹəɪt/
Write has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-write.ogg, En-uk-to_write.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with write
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: right, rite, wright (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with write?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as write from its last stressed vowel (/əɪt/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of write
- writes present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- writing participle, present
- wrote past, singular, he/she/it, plural
- written participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does write mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To form letters, words or symbols on a surface in order to communicate.
The pupil wrote his name on the paper.
- 2
To be the author of (a book, article, poem, etc.).
My uncle writes newspaper articles for The Herald.
- 3
To compose and send written information (to).
Please write to me when you get there.
- 4
To compose and send (written information or a written message, e.g. a letter) to.
Please write me a letter. Please write a letter to me.
- 5
To convey a fact to someone via writing.
Jimmy wrote me that he needs more money.
- 6
To show (information, etc) in written form.
The due day of the homework is written in the syllabus.
- 7
To be an author.
I write for a living.
- 8
To record data mechanically or electronically.
The computer writes to the disk faster than it reads from it.
noun
- 1
The act or style of writing.
- 2
The operation of storing data, as in memory or onto disk.
How many writes per second can this hard disk handle?
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Write in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | écrire , écrire à , rédiger , enregistrer |
| German | schreiben, schriibe , verfassen, texten |
| Portuguese | escrever, redigir |
| Spanish | escribir , escribir a |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does write come from?
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”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).