From Middle English writer, writere, from Old English wrītere and ġewritere, equivalent to and .

• (RP) IPA: /ˈɹaɪ.tə/, [ˈɹ̠aɪtə]
• (America) IPA: /ˈɹaɪ.təɹ/, [ˈɹ̠ăɪɾɚ]
• (Canada, Inland North) IPA: /ˈɹaɪ.təɹ/, [ˈɹ̠ʌɪɾɚ]

writer (plural writers)

1. A person who writes, or produces literary work; an author can refer to themselves as "the writer".

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

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

   the present writer (referring to oneself as the writer)

   • 1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC ↗, partition II, section 2, member 6, subsection iv, page 298 ↗:

     Beautie alone is a ſoveraigne remedy againſt feare,griefe,and all melancholy fits; a charm,as Peter de la Seine and many other writers affirme,a banquet it ſelfe;he gives inſtance in diſcontented Menelaus that was ſo often freed by Helenas faire face: and ^hTully, 3 Tusc. cites Epicurus as a chiefe patron of this Tenent.

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. (finance) The seller of an option.
4. (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.
5. (Scotland) An ordinary legal practitioner in Scottish country towns.
6. (US) A petty officer in the United States navy who keeps the watch-muster and other books of the ship.

   Synonyms: ship writer, ship's writer

7. (slang) A graffiti artist.

• author
• See also Thesaurus:writer

• write
• writing

• French: écrivain, auteur
• German: Schriftsteller, Schriftstellerin, Autor, Autorin, Schreiber, Schreiberin
• Italian: scrittore, scrittrice, autore, autrice
• Portuguese: escritor, escritora
• Russian: писа́тель
• Spanish: escritor, escritora, escriptor, escriptora

From writer.

1. Surname.