AAAmerican Accent US
Illustration: the history of the word write
wsilentrite
A sound people stopped saying

Why is the W in write silent?

Write comes from Old English wrītan, once said with a real W. Writing first meant scratching runes into wood. Here is how the W went silent.

Then · Old English

wrītan

said like WREE-tan

1600s↓

Now · American English

write/raɪt/

said RITE

The story

Write comes from Old English wrītan. Its Germanic ancestor meant "to carve, to scratch", and its relatives show it: German ritzen means "to scratch, carve" and reißen "to tear". Early Germanic writing was runes cut into wood, bone or stone, so to "write" was, literally, to scratch.

The W was a real sound. Old English wrītan began with a lip- rounded W gliding straight into the R. Speakers kept it through the Middle Ages and then simplified the cluster: wr- was reduced to plain R, apparently during the 1600s — the same century the K fell silent in knee and know.

The vowel moved too. The ī of wrītan was a long "ee"; the Great Vowel Shift turned it into "eye". So write once sounded like "WREET", and today it is a homophone of right, rite and wright (as in playwright) — four spellings, one sound.

How the word changed

  1. 1

    Proto-Germanic

    *wrītaną

    "To carve, write" — runes were cut into wood and stone.

  2. 2

    Old English (before 1100)

    wrītan

    W pronounced; ī is a long "ee".

  3. 3

    Great Vowel Shift (1400-1600)

    write

    "ee" becomes "eye".

  4. 4

    1600s

    write

    wr- simplifies to r-: RITE.

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Questions people ask

+Why is there a W in write?

Because it was once pronounced. Old English wrītan began with a W sound, which English speakers dropped around the 1600s.

+What did write originally mean?

"To scratch, to carve" — early Germanic writing was runes cut into wood or stone. German ritzen, "to scratch", is a relative.

+Do write and right sound the same?

Yes, in modern English write, right, rite and wright are all pronounced /raɪt/.

More words with a story

wrongRAWNG

Wrong once meant "crooked, twisted" and was said with a real W. It is related to wring. Here is how the W went silent while the spelling stayed.

answerAN-ser

Answer comes from Old English andswaru, "a sworn reply" — it contains the word swear. That is where its silent W comes from.

swordSORD

Sword comes from Old English sweord, and the W was pronounced. German Schwert still has it. Here is how English lost the W but kept the spelling.

knowNOH

Know comes from Old English cnāwan, pronounced with a K. It shares an ancient root with Latin cognoscere and Greek gnosis. Here is how the K went silent.

Part of

Why is the W in write silent?