different between writ vs rite

English

Etymology

From Middle English writ, iwrit, ?ewrit, from Old English writ (“letter, book, treatise; scripture, writing; writ, charter, document, deed”) and ?ewrit (“writing, something written, written language; written character, bookstave; inscription; orthography; written statement, passage from a book; official or formal document, document; law, jurisprudence; regulation; list, catalog; letter; text of an agreement; writ, charter, deed; literary writing, book, treatise; books dealing with a subject under notice; a book of the Bible; scripture, canonical book, the Scriptures; stylus”), from Proto-Germanic *writ? (“fissure, writing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wrey-, *wr?- (“to scratch, carve, ingrave”). Cognate with Scots writ (“writ, writing, handwriting”), Icelandic rit (“writing, writ, literary work, publication”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Noun

writ (countable and uncountable, plural writs)

1. (law) A written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
2. Authority, power to enforce compliance.

   • We can't let them take advantage of the fact that there are so many areas of the world where no one's writ runs.

   • 1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, A Wayfarer in China

     Within Lololand, of course, no Chinese writ runs, no Chinese magistrate holds sway, and the people, more or less divided among themselves, are under the government of their tribal chiefs.

3. (archaic) That which is written; writing.
   • Babylon, so much spoken of in Holy Writ

Synonyms

• claim form (English law)

Derived terms

• drop the writ
• handwrit
• Holy Writ
• writ of habeas corpus

Translations

References

• Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

Verb

writ

1. (archaic) past tense of write
   • c. 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act II scene iv^[2]:

     I know the hand: in faith, 'tis a fair hand;

     And whiter than the paper it writ on

     Is the fair hand that writ.

2. (archaic) past participle of write
   • c. 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act II scene iv^[3]:

     I know the hand: in faith, 'tis a fair hand;

     And whiter than the paper it writ on

     Is the fair hand that writ.

   • 1682, John Dryden, Mac Klecknoe

     Let Virtuosos in five years be writ; / Yet not one thought accuse thy toil of wit. (Mac Flecknoe)

   • 1859, Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerlad (translattor), Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

     The moving finger writes, and having writ, not all your piety or wit can lure it back to cancel half a line […]

   • 1821, John Keats

     Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water.

Usage notes

• The form writ survives in standard dialects in the phrase writ large as well as in works aiming for an intentionally poetic or archaic style. It remains common in some dialects (e.g. Scouse).

Derived terms

• writ large
• writ small

Anagrams

• ITRW, Wirt

Gothic

Romanization

writ

1. Romanization of ????????????????

Old English

Alternative forms

• ?ewrit

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *writ?, whence also Old High German riz, Old Norse rit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /writ/

Noun

writ n (nominative plural writu)

1. writ

Declension

Derived terms

• ?ewrit

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?a?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t
• Homophones: right, wright, Wright, write

Etymology 1

Via Middle English and Old French, from Latin ritus.

Noun

rite (plural rites)

1. A religious custom.
2. (by extension) A prescribed behavior.
   • 1989, H. T. Willetts (translator), Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (author), August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ?ISBN, page 141–42:

     But he had to perform the rites of hospitality, had to behave politely to his ally.

Related terms

• ritual

Translations

Etymology 2

Variation of right.

Adjective

rite (not comparable)

1. Informal spelling of right.

Derived terms

Adverb

rite (not comparable)

1. Informal spelling of right.

Interjection

rite

1. Informal spelling of right.

Noun

rite (plural rites)

1. Informal spelling of right.
   1. used in unique spellings of company brand names
   2. part of the contraction and interjection amirite

Anagrams

• REIT, Teri, iter, iter., reit, tier, tire, trie

French

Alternative forms

• rit (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ritus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?it/

Noun

rite m (plural rites)

1. rite

Derived terms

• rite de passage

Further reading

• “rite” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /????t??/

Etymology 1

Participle

rite

1. past participle of righ

Adjective

rite

1. taut, tense
2. sharp, steep
3. exposed (le (“to”))
4. eager (chun (“for”))

Derived terms

• riteacht f (“tautness, tenseness; sharpness, steepness; exposedness, bleakness”)

Etymology 2

Participle

rite

1. past participle of rith

Adjective

rite

1. exhausted, extinct

Derived terms

• rite anuas, rite síos (“run down”) (in health)

References

• "rite" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.

Latin

Etymology

From r?tus (“rite, custom”)

Adverb

r?te (not comparable)

1. according to religious usage, with due observances, with proper ceremonies, ceremonially, solemnly, duly

References

• rite in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• rite in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• rite in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.

Maori

Etymology

From Proto-Eastern Polynesian *lite. Compare Hawaiian like.

Verb

rite

1. to resemble; to be like, similar, alike

Derived terms

• whakarite: to make something equal, to make something similar

References

• “rite” in John C. Moorfield, Te Aka: Maori-English, English-Maori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, 2011, ?ISBN.

Murui Huitoto

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [??i.t?]
• Hyphenation: ri?te

Verb

rite

1. (transitive) to plant

References

• Shirley Burtch (1983) Diccionario Huitoto Murui (Tomo I) (Linguistica Peruana No. 20)?^[2] (in Spanish), Yarinacocha, Peru: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, page 214
• Katarzyna Izabela Wojtylak (2017) A grammar of Murui (Bue): a Witotoan language of Northwest Amazonia.?^[3], Townsville: James Cook University press (PhD thesis), page 87

Slovak

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?rite]

Noun

rite

1. nominative/accusative plural of ri?