author

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The writer of a book, article, or other text.
• noun One who practices writing as a profession.
• noun One who writes or constructs an electronic document or system, such as a website.
• noun An originator or creator, as of a theory or plan.
• noun God.
• transitive verb Usage Problem To write or be the author of (a published text).
• transitive verb To write or construct (an electronic document or system).

from The Century Dictionary.

• To occasion; effect; do.
• To be authority for; vouch for.
• noun The beginner, former, or first mover of anything; he to whom something owes its origin; originator; creator; efficient cause: as, God is the author of the universe.
• noun Cause: applied to things.
• noun The original composer of a book or writing of any kind, as distinguished from a compiler, translator, editor, or copyist.
• noun [Often used elliptically for the literary production itself: as, the statement occurs in Pliny and other ancient authors.]
• noun An editor: as, the author of the Gentleman's Magazine.
• noun A person who authorizes a statement; an authority; an informant.
• noun In Scots law, one from whom a title to property is derived either by inheritance or otherwise; especially, one from whom title is derived by purchase or otherwise than by way of descent.
• noun plural A game of cards played with a special pack bearing the names of authors and their works.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The beginner, former, or first mover of anything; hence, the efficient cause of a thing; a creator; an originator.
• noun One who composes or writes a book; a composer, as distinguished from an editor, translator, or compiler.
• noun obsolete The editor of a periodical.
• noun Archaic An informant.
• transitive verb obsolete To occasion; to originate.
• transitive verb obsolete To tell; to say; to declare.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The originator or creator of a work, especially of a literary composition.
• noun Someone who writes books for a living; a bookwright.
• noun I, me. used in academic articles as first-person pronoun.
• verb To create a work as its author.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay)
• verb be the author of
• noun someone who originates or causes or initiates something