Meaning & use
scribe
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Meanings
nouncountable
A person whose job was to copy documents by hand, especially in ancient or medieval times.
Grammar: Countable: a scribe, the scribe, scribes. Use 'a' or 'the' when talking about one person.
Patterns
- a scribe in ancient Egypt
- work as a scribe
In ancient Egypt, a scribe was trained to write hieroglyphs on papyrus.
The monastery kept several scribes busy copying religious texts.
A scribe could earn a good living because few people could read or write.
nouncountableinformal
Someone who takes notes or writes down what is said at a meeting or event.
Grammar: Countable and often used in the phrase 'act as scribe' or 'be the scribe'.
Patterns
- act as scribe
- be the scribe for something
Could you act as scribe for today's meeting and write up the minutes?
She was the scribe for the group, noting down every idea on the whiteboard.
We need a scribe to record the decisions we make.
nouncountableformalliteraryhumorous
A journalist or writer, especially one who writes in a formal or literary style.
Grammar: Countable; often used slightly humorously or critically about writers.
Patterns
- a political scribe
- the scribes of the day
The political scribes in the capital quickly turned the scandal into headlines.
As a young scribe, he wrote for several literary magazines.
The scribes of the newspaper world gathered at the press conference.
Word forms
| plural | scribes |
|---|
Common combinations
- ancient scribe
- The museum displayed tools used by an ancient scribe.
- work as a scribe
- He worked as a scribe for a legal office before becoming a lawyer.
- act as scribe
- At the workshop, I was asked to act as scribe.
- the scribe's job
- The scribe's job was to copy documents accurately.
- a team of scribes
- A team of scribes produced hundreds of copies of the book.
Synonyms and how they differ
- copyist
- Copyist is a more neutral, modern word for someone who copies documents; scribe often suggests ancient or historical work.
- clerk
- Clerk is a general office worker who handles records; a scribe specifically writes by hand or takes notes.
- notetaker
- Notetaker is the everyday modern term for someone who writes down what is said; scribe is more formal or historical.
- writer
- Writer is a broad term for anyone who writes; scribe is narrower and often suggests copying or recording.
Word family
- scribal adjective
- Relating to a scribe or the work of copying documents, as in 'scribal errors'.
- scribble verb
- To write quickly and untidily, often without care.
- transcribe verb
- To write down spoken words or copy text from one form to another.
- script noun
- Handwriting or a written text, especially for a play or film.
Commonly confused: scribe or scribe vs. describe? scribe or scribe vs. subscribe?
scribe vs scribe vs. describe
Scribe is a person who copies or writes; describe means to say what something is like. They share a root but are not interchangeable.
scribe vs scribe vs. subscribe
Subscribe means to pay for a service or agree with an idea; scribe does not carry that meaning.
Practice
In the sentence 'She was asked to act as scribe for the meeting,' what does 'scribe' mean?
Choose one answer.
'Act as scribe' in a meeting context means taking notes or recording what is said, so option 1 fits. Option 0 describes the historical sense, which does not fit a modern meeting. Option 2 is too narrow and literary, and option 3 is unrelated.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “scribe”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.