Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who writes, especially as an occupation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A person who understands or practises the art of writing; one who is able to write; a penman.
  • noun One who does writing as a business; a professional scribe, scrivener, or amanuensis: used specifically in England of clerks to the former East India Company, and of temporary copying clerks in government offices; in Scotland, loosely, of law agents, solicitors, attorneys, etc., and sometimes of their principal clerks.
  • noun A person who writes what he composes in his mind; the author of a written paper or of writings; an author in general; a literary producer of any kind: as, the writer of a letter; a writer of history or of fiction.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who writes, or has written; a scribe; a clerk.
  • noun One who is engaged in literary composition as a profession; an author.
  • noun A clerk of a certain rank in the service of the late East India Company, who, after serving a certain number of years, became a factor.
  • noun (Med.) a painful spasmodic affection of the muscles of the fingers, brought on by excessive use, as in writing, violin playing, telegraphing, etc. Called also scrivener's palsy.
  • noun See under Signet.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A person who writes, or produces literary work.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person who is able to write and has written something
  • noun writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old English

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Examples

  • The writer is making the assumption that … The author is writing this section to … The author used_____ to support their ideas The big idea in the writing is … about … The authors reason for writing this is … The author is showing me that _________because … The authors message is … Author Craft: Writers of nonfiction help readers by … When the writer_____, it helps make a strong Point of view: point because … When I read____, I can see the author feels … When the writer uses words like … The author feels that ____, because ____ ...

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2008

  • XML:: Writer:: Nest - > new (tag = > 'level1', writer = > $writer); {local $xml = $xml - > nest ( 'level2'); {local $xml = $xml - > nest ( 'level3');}}}

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2009

  • XML:: Writer:: Nest - > new (tag = > 'level1', writer = > $writer); {local $xml = $xml - > nest ( 'level2'); {local $xml = $xml - > nest ( 'level3');}}}

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows metaperl 2009

  • A burst writer is often a burst writer from the first days of attempting her first material.

    Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » The Pace of You 2009

  • Nature. com reviews two books about artificial intelligence, and points out that the work of a certain writer is ignored:

    » ‘Mike’ is defended heinleinblog 2007

  • And then the film cutter and the title writer each

    Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence The Queer Old Man of the Thousand Islands Alice B. Emerson

  • I Don't Know How She Does It - a title writer Eve MacSweeney deems an apt description of SJP's life as wife, mom of three, actor, producer, Unicef ambassador, product shill and design-and- Disclaimer

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed JAMES ADAMS 2011

  • It's a minor complaint-especially since Pugh's handling every aspect of the title writer, artist, and letterer-but a couple of typos were enough to make me notice.

    Chris's Invincible Super-Blog 2009

  • But, hey, a writer is a writer is a writer, with apologies to Gertrude Stein.

    Notes on Ravines and Wolffer at I Drink NY Astor Place Event 2009

  • Our craft as a writer is a never ending journey and one, like a garden, needs to be tended on a regular basis.

    The Art and Craft of Storytelling « Write Anything 2009

Comments

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  • Knowing that a number of Wordizens make their living as editors of one sort or another, I thought you would enjoy this delightful quote from copy-editor John E. McIntyre's blog:

    The writer: To an editor (well, to some editors), the writer is an annoying inconvenience that nevertheless makes editing possible — the chicken that must be plucked, cleaned, and butchered before it can be turned into a delightful coq au vin. But you do have some obligation to make the text resemble the work of the author, perhaps dusted off and perfumed a little, but still recognizably the author more than you. The text should be not what you would have written, but what the author would have written had he been a better writer.

    June 19, 2009

  • "For both Columbus and Magellan writers played a critical role in sustaining their rightful place in history."

    --Joyce Appleby, Shores of Knowledge: New World Discoveries and the Scientific Imagination (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013), p. 66

    December 28, 2016

  • "Printing facilitated the preservation of records at the same time that it lured countless men and women to take up the challenge of writing about what they knew, observed, and experienced. It even allowed some erudite authors, like Erasmus, to earn enough from their publications to free themselves from patrons. The professional writer had arrived."

    --Joyce Appleby, Shores of Knowledge: New World Discoveries and the Scientific Imagination (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013), p. 74

    December 28, 2016