Scrivenery
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The practice or work of a scrivener. uncountable
"And yet we have notable penmen at head-quarters, who are at their vocation night and day, and who injure their temper and manners by incessant scrivenery, the results of which are buried in the pigeon-holes of Whitehall, never to be seen even in the lively pages of a blue-book."
- 2 A place where scriveners work; a scriptorium. countable, historical
"At the bottom of folio 109 there is an entry which reads, The Law at Twickenham for mery tales. This is, apparently, a reference to a scrivenery and staff of skilled penmen maintained at Twickenham by Francis [Bacon] and his brother Anthony Bacon."
Example
More examples"And yet we have notable penmen at head-quarters, who are at their vocation night and day, and who injure their temper and manners by incessant scrivenery, the results of which are buried in the pigeon-holes of Whitehall, never to be seen even in the lively pages of a blue-book."
Etymology
From scrivener + -ry.
More for "scrivenery"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.