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Glite Dictionary
✉️ To contact 🗳️ To add a candidate
to write in

to write in

54 4.2
Send a message to a radio show to say what you think
  • phrasal verb
  • /raɪt ɪn/
translation icon : escribir a
  • Three questions provided space labeled 'other' for students to write in items not provided in a list.
  • one reader wrote in

I had you guys last week write in questions or scenarios.

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Examples

  • Write in "None of the above" on your ballot.

    Brewster's Millions (1985)

  • So thousands of people wrote in, but what they said was interesting.

  • We have provided a place where you can write in your own personal message to THE HIGHEST ONE.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • We do not generally write in popular magazines, nor are we involved with television.

    Academic text (2001)

  • And I'm always interested in how I can write in a very engaging and very personal way.

  • First up, someone's written in saying I think I'm being ghosted.

    Bach and Arthur Podcast

  • So I figure for every one who writes in, there are, I don't know, hundreds that don't.

    Julie & Julia (2009)

  • Many viewers decided to write in to express their opinions about the show's ending.

  • After the event, several attendees wrote in to share their thoughts and suggestions.

  • The organization encourages people to write in if they have any questions or concerns.

Synonyms

to send in
vsto write in
241 2.3

To give something to an organization by mail or email

refers specifically to sending a letter or message expressing opinion or request

How Active

to riot
26 4.9
to strike
133 3.2
to protest
283 3.2
to petition
  • Formal
61 3.5
to write in
54 4.2

Surface Forms

write in infinitive
writing in present participle
writes in third person singular
wrote in past
written in past participle

Morphology

write + in

The meaning involves literally writing a name "in" to the ballot, so part of the sense is compositional and can be inferred from 'write' + 'in' (to write something into a form or list). However, the specific electoral/procedural sense of adding an unlisted candidate is specialized and not fully predictable for a B1 learner without exposure to voting contexts, so it is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Write in comes from people who would write a letter and put it in a newspaper's or radio show's mailbox. Picture putting your letter 'in' the box to share an opinion, so it means 'to send a message to an organization or program'.