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writest

Archaic Terms
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An archaic second-person singular form of "write" ("thou writest"), used in historic, formal, or devotional forms of poetry.

Detailed Definition
Writest is an archaic second-person verb form meaning "do you write." It appears in direct speech and gives the poem a biblical or elevated tone that modern readers may notice as old-fashioned.
Example
Example in poetry:
“What writest thou?” means “What are you writing?” and marks the second-person singular present tense; the ending -est commonly follows thou, as in “thou speakest” or “thou wanderest”; Blake’s prophetic speakers often use thou for elevated address; A modern imitation, “What writest thou in the dark?” can deliberately evoke archaic drama
Additional Notes
The form "writest" in the quoted question is an archaic verb ending that many modern readers would not use or expect.; Found in the poem, Abou Ben Adhem by Leigh Hunt
Also Known As
scribe penman wordsmith
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