Songwriting

How to spell songwriting

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce songwriting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does songwriting mean?

1. nounThe activity or craft of composing the words and music of songs.

Songwriting in a sentence

• She earns a steady income from songwriting for other artists.

• The workshop covers melody, lyrics, and the basics of songwriting.

Where does songwriting come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent modern compound built from two of the oldest words in English. 'Song' descends from the Old English 'sang', meaning a vocal piece of music, and is closely tied to the verb 'singan', 'to sing'; the same Germanic root surfaces in the German 'Sang' and 'singen'. 'Write' comes from the Old English 'writan', which originally meant 'to scratch, score, or carve', because early writing was scratched into wood or stone before it ever meant putting words on a page. The two were joined to describe the craft of composing both the words and the music of a song, a usage that became common with the growth of the popular music and recording industries in the twentieth century. Because each half is a familiar everyday word, the only real spelling decision is remembering that it is written solid as one word, with the silent 'w' inherited from 'write'.

How the word is built

• song (a musical composition with words)
• writ(e) (to compose)
• -ing (gerund/noun suffix)