writer

English

Etymology

From Middle English writer, writere, from Old English wrītere (“draughtsman; painter; writer; scribe; copyist”) and ġewritere (“writer; composer”), equivalent to write +‎ -er and writ +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɹaɪtə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹaɪtɚ/, [ˈɹɐɪɾɚ]

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪtə(ɹ)
• Homophone: rider (in some accents)

Noun

writer (plural writers)

1. A person who writes, or produces literary work.

   Has your girlfriend written you another letter already? She’s quite a writer!

   I met some of my favourite authors at the writers' convention.

2. Anything that writes or produces output.
   • 2001, Cay S. Horstmann, ‎Gary Cornell, Core Java 2: Fundamentals (page 715)

     If the writer is set to autoflush mode, then all characters in the buffer are sent to their destination whenever println is called.

3. (historical) A clerk of a certain rank in the service of the East India Company, who, after serving a certain number of years, became a factor.
4. (Scotland) An ordinary legal practitioner in Scottish country towns.

Synonyms

• author
• See also Thesaurus:writer

Derived terms

Terms derived from writer (noun)

• copy writer

• ghost writer
• screenwriter

• space writer
• writer's cramp

Related terms

• write
• writing

Translations

person who writes; an author

• Afrikaans: skrywer (af)
• Albanian: shkrimtar (sq) m
• Arabic: كَاتِب‎ (ar) m (kātib), مُؤَلِّف‎ m (muʾallif)
• Armenian: գրող (hy) (groł)
• Aromanian: scriitor m
• Asturian: escritor m
• Azerbaijani: yazıçı (az)
• Bashkir: яҙыусы (yaðïwsï)
• Basque: idazle
• Belarusian: пісьме́ннік m (pisʹmjénnik), пісьме́нніца f (pisʹmjénnica)
• Bengali: লেখক (bn) (lekhôk)
• Bulgarian: писа́тел (bg) m (pisátel)
• Burmese: စာရေးဆရာ (my) (care:hca.ra)
• Catalan: escriptor (ca) m, escriptora (ca) f
• Chechen: яздархо (jazdarχo)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 作家 (zok³ gaa¹)

  Mandarin: 作家 (zh) (zuòjiā), 作者 (zh) (zuòzhě), 筆者 (zh), 笔者 (zh) (bǐzhě)

• Crimean Tatar: müellif
• Czech: spisovatel (cs) m
• Danish: forfatter (da)
• Dutch: schrijver (nl) m, schrijfster (nl) f, auteur (nl) m or f
• Elfdalian: fefatter m
• Esperanto: skribanto, (professional) skribisto, verkisto
• Estonian: kirjanik (et)
• Ewe: nuŋlɔla
• Faroese: rithøvundur m
• Finnish: kirjoittaja (fi), kirjailija (fi)
• French: écrivain (fr) m, auteur (fr) m
• Friulian: scritôr m
• Galician: escritor (gl) m
• Georgian: მწერალი (mc̣erali), ჭარუ (č̣aru)
• German: Schriftsteller (de) m, Schriftstellerin (de) f, Autor (de) m, Autorin (de) f, Schreiber (de) m, Schreiberin f
• Greek: συγγραφέας (el) m or f (syngraféas)

  Ancient: συγγραφεύς m (sungrapheús), γραφεύς m (grapheús)

• Greenlandic: atuakkiortoq, oqaluttualiortoq
• Hebrew: כּוֹתֵב‎ (kotév), סוֹפֵר‎ (he) m (sofér), מְחַבֵּר‎ (he) m (m'khabér)
• Hindi: लेखक (hi) m (lekhak), लेखिका (hi) f (lekhikā)
• Hungarian: író (hu)
• Hunsrik: Schreiver m, Schreivrin f
• Icelandic: rithöfundur (is) m
• Inari Sami: kirječällee
• Indonesian: penulis (id), pengarang (id)
• Interlingua: scriptor
• Irish: scríbhneoir m
• Italian: scrittore (it) m, scrittrice (it) f
• Japanese: 著者 (ja) (ちょしゃ, chosha), 作家 (ja) (さっか, sakka), 筆者 (ja) (ひっしゃ, hissha)
• Kalmyk: бичәч (biçäç)
• Kashubian: pisôrz m, pisôrka f
• Kazakh: жазушы (kk) (jazwşı)
• Khmer: អ្នកនិពន្ធ (nĕək nipŭən)
• Korean: 저자 (ko) (jeoja) (著者 (ko)), 작가 (ko) (jakga) (作家 (ko)), 필자 (ko) (pilja) (筆者 (ko))
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: نوسه‌ر‎ (nuser)

• Kyrgyz: жазуучу (ky) (cazuuçu)
• Lao: ນັກຂຽນ (lo) (nak khīan)
• Latin: scriptor m, scriptrix f
• Latvian: rakstnieks m, autors m
• Lingala: mokomi class c1/c2
• Lithuanian: rašytojas (lt) m, rašytoja (lt) f, autorius m, autorė f
• Luxembourgish: Schrëftsteller m, Auteur m
• Macedonian: пи́сател m (písatel), писа́телка f (pisátelka)
• Malay: penulis, pengarang, mualif, katib
• Maltese: kittieb m
• Manx: screeudeyr m
• Maori: kaituhi
• Marathi: लेखक m (lekhak)
• Mongolian: зохиолч (mn) (zohiolč), бичээч (mn) (bičeeč)
• Norman: auteu m (Jersey)
• Northern Sami: čálli, girječálli
• Norwegian: forfatter (no) m, skribent m
• Occitan: escrivan (oc) m
• Old English: wrītere
• Pashto: ليکوال‎ (ps) (líkwâl)
• Persian: نویسنده‎ (fa) (nevisande)
• Polish: pisarz (pl) m pers, pisarka (pl) f
• Portuguese: escritor (pt) m, escritora f
• Romanian: scriitor (ro) m, scriitoare (ro) f, autor (ro) m de cărți
• Romansch: scriptur m, sriptura f, scrivent m, scriventa f
• Russian: писа́тель (ru) m (pisátelʹ), писа́тельница (ru) f (pisátelʹnica), а́втор (ru) m (ávtor)
• Samoan: tusitala
• Scottish Gaelic: sgrìobhadair m, sgrìobhaiche m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пи́сац m, писатељ m, писатѐљица f, спѝсатељ m, списатѐљица f

  Roman: písac (sh) m, pisatelj m, pisatèljica f, spìsatelj (sh) m, spisatèljica (sh) f

• Sinhalese: ලියන්නා (liyannā)
• Slovak: spisovateľ m
• Slovene: pisátelj (sl) m, pisáteljica f, písec m
• Sorbian:

  Upper Sorbian: spisowaćel m, spisowaćelka f

• Spanish: escritor (es) m, escritora (es) f
• Swahili: mwandishi (sw)
• Swedish: skribent (sv) c (of shorter articles, speeches, etc.), författare (sv) c (of books), skriftställare c (of several genres, may also publish and translate)
• Tagalog: manunulat (tl)
• Tajik: нависанда (tg) (navisanda)
• Tatar: язучы (tt) (yazuçı)
• Thai: นักเขียน (th) (nák-kǐian)
• Turkish: müellif (tr), yazar (tr), yazıcı (tr)
• Turkmen: ýazyjy
• Ukrainian: письме́нник (uk) m (pysʹménnyk)
• Urdu: لیکھک‎ m (lekhak)
• Uyghur: يازغۇچى‎ (yazghuchi)
• Uzbek: yozuvchi (uz)
• Vietnamese: nhà văn (vi)
• Volapük: lautan (vo)
• Welsh: ysgrifennwr (cy) m
• Yiddish: מחבר‎ m (mekhaber), מעכאַבער‎ m (mekhaber), שרײַבער‎ m (shrayber), אויטאָר‎ m (oytor), פֿאַרפֿאַסער‎ m (farfaser), שריפֿטשטעלער‎ m (shriftshteler), וואָרטקינסטלער‎ m (vortkinstler), ליטעראַט‎ m (literat), פֿעדערניק‎ m (federnik)
• Zazaki: nusger, nustekar

Anagrams

• rewrit

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Middle English

Alternative forms

• wryter, writere, wrytter, wrytere, wrijtere

Etymology

From Old English wrītere; can be synchronically analysed as writen +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwriːtər(ə)/

Noun

writer (plural writers)

1. A draughtsman, or copyist; one who notes down the words of another.
2. A record-keeper or annalist; one who records significant events.
3. A writer or author; one who writes.
4. (rare) One who produces a translation.

Related terms

• writen

Descendants

• English: writer
• Scots: writer

References

• “wrīter(e (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-30.