Meanings
- idiomaticuncountableA debilitating pain preventing easy movement of the wrist, hand, or fingers, resulting from prolonged use of a pen or pencil.
Henry James, after he suffered an attack of writer's cramp, began to dictate to a typist.
2007 Nov. 4, John Updike, "On Literary Biography" (excerpt from Due Considerations), New York Times (retrieved 9 Dec 2011)3 more examples
The recording of their tales is no more than a matter of ears and fingers. There are only two fates I dread—deafness and writer's cramp.
c. 1900, O. Henry, He Also Serves"The following boys will go in to extra lesson this afternoon and next Wednesday," it began. And "the following boys" numbered four hundred. "Bates must have got writer's cramp," said Clowes, as he read the huge scroll.
1909, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 12, in Mike: A Public School StoryChristmas dividend checks and checks covering Christmas presents to his employees were always signed by him. . . . He had writer's cramp by the time he finished.
1922, Peter B. Kyne, chapter 23, in Cappy Ricks RetiresSynonyms: cheirospasm, graphospasm, mogigraphia
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA debilitating pain preventing easy movement of the wrist, hand, or fingers, resulting from prolonged use of a pen or pencil.
More synonyms by meaning
nounmuscular spasms of thumb and forefinger while writing with a pen or pencil
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
Catalan rampa dels escrivents, grafospasme
- rampa dels escriventscramp in the writing hand
- grafospasmecramp in the writing hand
Danish skrivekrampe
- skrivekrampecramp in the writing hand
German Schreibkrampf, Graphospasmus
- Schreibkrampfcramp in the writing hand
- Graphospasmuscramp in the writing hand
- Cheirospasmuscramp in the writing hand
Japanese 書痙
- 書痙 (syokei)cramp in the writing hand
Norwegian Bokmål skrivekrampe
- skrivekrampecramp in the writing hand
Romanian crampa scriitorului
- crampa scriitoruluicramp in the writing hand
Swedish skrivkramp
- skrivkrampcramp in the writing hand
Cite this entry
writer's cramp. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/writer's%20cramp
“writer's cramp.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/writer's%20cramp. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “writer's cramp,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/writer's%20cramp.
Source: writer's cramp on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.