Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The act of one who writes.
- n. Written form: Put it in writing.
- n. Handwriting; penmanship.
- n. Something written, especially:
- n. Meaningful letters or characters that constitute readable matter.
- n. A written work, especially a literary composition.
- n. The occupation or style of a writer.
- n. Bible The third of the three divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures, composed of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. See Table at Bible.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The recording of words or sounds in significant characters; in the most general sense, any use of or method of using letters or other conventional symbols of uttered sounds for the visible preservation or transmission of ideas; specifically, as distinguished from printing, stamping, incision, etc., the act or art of tracing graphic signs by hand on paper, parchment, or any other material, with a pen and ink, style, pencil, or any other instrument; also, the written characters or words; handwriting; chirography.
- n. The state of being written; recorded form or expression: as, to put a proposition in writing; to commit one's thoughts to writing. In law the expressions in writing and written are often construed to include printed matter as well as manuscript.
- n. That which is written, or in a written state; a record made by hand in any way; a paper or instrument wholly or partly in manuscript; an inscription.
- n. A production of the pen in general; a literary or other composition; any expression of thought in visible words; a scripture.
- n. The expression of thought by written words; the use of the pen in conveying ideas; literary production.
Wiktionary
- v. present participle of write.
- n. uncountable Graphism of symbols such as letters that express some meaning.
- n. uncountable Something written, such as a document, article or book.
- n. uncountable The process of representing a language with symbols or letters.
- n. countable A work of an author.
- n. countable The style of writing of a person.
- n. as a modifier Intended for or used in writing.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act or art of forming letters and characters on paper, wood, stone, or other material, for the purpose of recording the ideas which characters and words express, or of communicating them to others by visible signs.
- n. Anything written or printed; anything expressed in characters or letters.
- n. Any legal instrument, as a deed, a receipt, a bond, an agreement, or the like.
- n. Any written composition; a pamphlet; a work; a literary production; a book.
- n. An inscription.
- n. Handwriting; chirography.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the act of creating written works
- n. (usually plural) the collected work of an author
- n. letters or symbols that are written or imprinted on a surface to represent the sounds or words of a language
- n. the work of a writer; anything expressed in letters of the alphabet (especially when considered from the point of view of style and effect)
- n. the activity of putting something in written form
Examples
“If you're writing nonfiction or memoir or something where craft is second to the information or story being conveyed then by all means have the actual *writing* part tightened up by a professional.”
Warning: Objects in Mirror May Be Less Self-Editing Than They Appear
“We take this opportunity of again begging correspondents who write to us on several subjects to oblige us by writing on separate papers; and_ (_which does not refer to_ A. L.) _by writing_ plainly, _more particularly_ proper names _and_ quotations.”
“I then showed it to the best experts in handwriting attached to the office, and called on outsiders to test their skill; but what the writing meant, _if it was writing_, was a conundrum that we all gave up.”
Lights and Shadows of New York Life or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City
“I mean -- that you should put down in writing _all_ outgoings, and in such a way as you, or I, might easily reckon them up: I mean, so as to see what _each_ amounts to -- No man's Memory can be trusted in such matters; and I think that _your_ Memory (jostled about, as you say, with many different calls, [_sic_ no close to parenthesis] needs to have _writing_ to refer to.”
“No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.”
“A better basis than speaking for the metaphor of voice in writing is singing.”
“I suspect the only rule in writing is that there are no rules to writing.”
“Also, visiting the library to see that my books, amongst all those novels available to the public, are being chosen and signed out reminds me that my writing is worthy of the time and energy I invest in writing my novels. on 29 Jan 2009 at 12: 03 am Julie Layne”
Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Reclaiming the joy of writing
“No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher”
Excerpt: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
“The lack of brilliance in the writing translates as unimpressive behavior among the crew.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘writing’.
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EN - pronunciation fun
All words of the poem
The Chaos
by Gerard Nolst Trenité
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse <...abyss, ache, actual, advice, aerie, age, ague, aisles, alas, alien, alive, allowed and 406 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...health, follow, condition, meeting, minister, beginning, chapter, information, language, remain, covered, respect and 2614 more...
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BIOL - the brain
ruptured blood ve..., clot, pressure on a blo..., tumor, brain region, comprehension of ..., production of mea..., autonomic nervous..., conservation of t..., catecholamine, arousal, regulation of sleep and 564 more...
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Starts with a silent letter
...with grateful thanks to telofy (for "cnidarian"), and to the song "Crazy ABC's" by Barenaked Ladies.
cnidarian, mnemonic, chthonic, ptarmigan, psoriasis, psittacine, bdellium, aisle, czar, gnarly, gnat, gnaw and 82 more...
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Clear and simple as the truth
Classic style
Focused, assured, virtues, clarity, simplicity, sense, vises, declines, acknowledge, ambiguities, Tacit, concept and 13 more...
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Words for Literary Erotica
A selection of words for the genre, Literary Erotica.
erotica, love, sex, heterosexual..., heterotica, romantic, romance..., humanism, humans, fiction, short st..., sexuality, vanill..., desire, longing, ..., husband, wife, lo..., men, women and 14 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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some-ing
king, offering, blessing, coping, earnings, trappings, breeding, during, offing, refreshing, sitting, outing and 208 more...
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#1
Words I Like
abide, sashay, microbial, scented, nature, amorphous, unknown, imagine, photogenic, soft, silken, history and 188 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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junestag's Words
postmodernism, cat, fish, rabbit, dell, coffee, elearning, mazda, php, mysql, flash, blogger and 755 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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Diversified Obsessions
calendars, running, music, men, friends, motherhood, art, food, solitude, connection, drama, humor and 117 more...
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genuinejessie's Words
cockatoo, goffins, glamour model, natural blonde, camera, website design, photographer, blogger, writing, journal, macro photography, glamour photography and 43 more...
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fascination
biology, psychology, linguistics, literature, poetry, photography, writing, etiology, mythology, theology, art, physiology and 11 more...
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I Can't Live w/o Wordiehol
Things I could/should be doing instead of listing words. Suggestions?
reading, socializing, writing, cleaning, editing, emailing, sleeping, protesting, exercising, journaling, volunteering, ripping tassels o... and 1 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for writing.

chained_bear One of my favorite writing quotes can be found here. Aug 31, 2009
reesetee Anydelirium, I've heard this quote, attributed to Red Smith: "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein." (It's one of my favorites.) Is that the one you mean? Feb 18, 2008
anydelirium 'Writing is easy. Just place a piece of paper in the typewriter and start bleeding.' -Thomas Wolfe Feb 18, 2008
oroboros “I write to discover what I think. After all, the bars aren't open that early.�?
– Daniel J. Boorstin, Librarian of Congress, historian (1914-2004) On why he wrote at home from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m., Wall Street Journal, 12/31/1985 Aug 28, 2007
oroboros "I leave out the parts that people skip."
– Elmore Leonard (b. 1925) Aug 28, 2007
oroboros While lying down in a large cardboard box, one chap thought, "Most writing and common poverty have nothing in common...except having nothing." He then fell asleep and dreamed of a place where wood chips could speak for themselves and words existed before ink began calling the tunes. --Jan Cox Apr 6, 2007