indite

/ɪnˈdaɪt/

Other forms: indited; inditing; indites

The verb indite, rarely used today, means "compose" or "put down in writing," like when you find a quiet place to sit down with your notebook and pen and indite a journal entry or a first draft of a short story.

To indite is to write something creative — you indite a letter, and jot a grocery list. Don't confuse indite with its homophone indict, which means "to charge with a crime." Both come from the Latin word dictare, meaning “to declare.” Even if you indite a really bad poem, critics won't indict you.

Definitions of indite

1. verb

   produce a literary work
   synonyms: compose, pen, write

   publish, write

   have (one's written work) issued for publication

   types:

   draw

   write a legal document or paper

   lyric

   write lyrics for (a song)

   write about, write of, write on

   write about a particular topic

   profile

   write about

   paragraph

   write paragraphs; work as a paragrapher

   paragraph

   write about in a paragraph

   write off

   write something fluently, and without hesitation

   dash off, fling off, knock off, scratch off, toss off

   write quickly

   rewrite

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

   write copy

   write for commercial publications

   adopt, dramatise, dramatize

   put into dramatic form

   draft, outline

   draw up an outline or sketch for something

   poetise, poetize, verse, versify

   compose verses or put into verse

   author

   be the author of

   annotate, footnote

   add explanatory notes to or supply with critical comments

   cite, reference

   refer to

   write out, write up

   put into writing; write in complete form

   script

   write a script for

   relyric

   write new lyrics for (a song)

   metrify

   compose in poetic meter

   spondaise, spondaize

   make spondaic

   elegise, elegize

   compose an elegy

   sonnet

   compose a sonnet

   co-author

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

   ghost, ghostwrite

   write for someone else

   type of:

   create verbally

   create with or from words