Library / English Dictionary

WRITING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The activity of putting something in written form

Example:

she did the thinking while he did the writing

Synonyms:

committal to writing; writing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("writing" is a kind of...):

activity (any specific behavior)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "writing"):

coding; cryptography; secret writing; steganography (act of writing in code or cipher)

handwriting (the activity of writing by hand)

inscription (the activity of inscribing (especially carving or engraving) letters or words)

notation (the activity of representing something by a special system of marks or characters)

Derivation:

write (communicate or express by writing)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of creating written works

Example:

it was a matter of disputed authorship

Synonyms:

authorship; composition; penning; writing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("writing" is a kind of...):

verbal creation (creating something by the use of speech and language)

Domain member category:

script (write a script for)

write out; write up (put into writing; write in complete form)

cite; reference (refer to)

annotate; footnote (add explanatory notes to or supply with critical comments)

ghost; ghostwrite (write for someone else)

co-author (be a co-author on (a book, a paper))

author (be the author of)

draft; outline (draw up an outline or sketch for something)

adopt; dramatise; dramatize (put into dramatic form)

write copy (write for commercial publications)

rewrite (rewrite so as to make fit to suit a new or different purpose)

dash off; fling off; knock off; scratch off; toss off (write quickly)

paragraph (write paragraphs; work as a paragrapher)

profile (write about)

write about; write of; write on (write about a particular topic)

compose; indite; pen; write (produce a literary work)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "writing"):

versification (the art or practice of writing verse)

lexicography (the act of writing dictionaries)

redaction (the act of putting something in writing)

novelisation; novelization (converting something into the form of a novel)

metrification (writing a metrical composition (or the metrical structure of a composition))

historiography (the writing of history)

fabrication; fictionalisation; fictionalization (writing in a fictional form)

dramatisation; dramatization (conversion into dramatic form)

drafting (writing a first version to be filled out and polished later)

adoxography (fine writing in praise of trivial or base subjects)

Derivation:

write (produce a literary work)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Letters or symbols that are written or imprinted on a surface to represent the sounds or words of a language

Example:

the doctor's writing was illegible

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("writing" is a kind of...):

black and white; written communication; written language (communication by means of written symbols (either printed or handwritten))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "writing"):

notation; notational system (a technical system of symbols used to represent special things)

printing; printing process (reproduction by applying ink to paper as for publication)

skywriting (writing formed in the sky by smoke released from an airplane)

hieroglyph; hieroglyphic (writing that resembles hieroglyphics (usually by being illegible))

hand; handwriting; script (something written by hand)

printing (text handwritten in the style of printed matter)

typewriting; typing (writing done with a typewriter)

capitalisation; capitalization (writing in capital letters)

coding system (a system of signals used to represent letters or numbers in transmitting messages)

orthography; writing system (a method of representing the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The work of a writer; anything expressed in letters of the alphabet (especially when considered from the point of view of style and effect)

Example:

that editorial was a fine piece of writing

Synonyms:

piece of writing; writing; written material

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("writing" is a kind of...):

black and white; written communication; written language (communication by means of written symbols (either printed or handwritten))

Meronyms (parts of "writing"):

epilog; epilogue (a short passage added at the end of a literary work)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "writing"):

manuscript; ms (the form of a literary work submitted for publication)

autograph (something written by one's own hand)

treatise (a formal exposition)

adaptation; version (a written work (as a novel) that has been recast in a new form)

essay (an analytic or interpretive literary composition)

editing; redaction (putting something (as a literary work or a legislative bill) into acceptable form)

religious text; religious writing; sacred text; sacred writing (writing that is venerated for the worship of a deity)

screed (a long piece of writing)

document; papers; written document (writing that provides information (especially information of an official nature))

dramatic composition; dramatic work (a play for performance on the stage or television or in a movie etc.)

dithyramb (a wildly enthusiastic speech or piece of writing)

plagiarism (a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is presented as being your own work)

transcript (something that has been transcribed; a written record (usually typewritten) of dictated or recorded speech)

inscription; lettering (letters inscribed (especially words engraved or carved) on something)

diary; journal (a daily written record of (usually personal) experiences and observations)

paragraph (one of several distinct subdivisions of a text intended to separate ideas; the beginning is usually marked by a new indented line)

section; subdivision (a self-contained part of a larger composition (written or musical))

criticism; literary criticism (a written evaluation of a work of literature)

matter (written works (especially in books or magazines))

literature (published writings in a particular style on a particular subject)

literature (creative writing of recognized artistic value)

literary composition; literary work (imaginative or creative writing)

rescript; revision; rewrite (something that has been written again)

cryptogram; cryptograph; secret writing (a piece of writing in code or cipher)

title ((usually plural) written material introduced into a movie or TV show to give credits or represent dialogue or explain an action)

bowdlerisation; bowdlerization (written material that has been bowdlerized)

Instance hyponyms:

Ayurveda ((Sanskrit) an ancient medical treatise summarizing the Hindu art of healing and prolonging life; sometimes regarded as a 5th Veda)

Sense 5

Meaning:

(usually plural) the collected work of an author

Example:

the idea occurs with increasing frequency in Hemingway's writings

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("writing" is a kind of...):

body of work; oeuvre; work (the total output of a writer or artist (or a substantial part of it))

black and white; written communication; written language (communication by means of written symbols (either printed or handwritten))

Domain usage:

plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "writing"):

patristics; patrology (the writings of the early Church Fathers)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

-ing form of the verb write

Credits

 Context examples: 

"Our study suggests the writing was on the wall."

(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)

If you like to write, you may have a book in you, and you may want to start writing in earnest.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

One half of the cerebrum, the part of the brain that controls muscle functions and also controls speech, thought, emotions, reading, writing, and learning.

(Cerebral hemisphere, NCI Dictionary)

A picture or symbol used in a system of writing.

(Ideogram, NCI Thesaurus)

What matter who did the writing of it!

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The printed messages, as is now evident, were to prevent her sex being discovered by her writing.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At the time I am writing, it is five years since my last return to England.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

You see, she said frankly, writing must be a trade, like anything else.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I have not always known their writing apart.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I would lay fifty guineas the letter was of his own writing.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)