dictation

American  

[dik-tey-shuhn] / dɪkˈteɪ ʃən /

noun

1. the act or manner of dictating for reproduction in writing.

2. the act or manner of transcribing words uttered by another.

3. words that are dictated or that are reproduced from dictation.

4. the playing or singing of music to be notated by a listener, especially as a technique of training the ear.

5. music notated from dictation.

6. the act of commanding arbitrarily.

7. something commanded.

---

dictation British  

/ dɪkˈteɪʃən /

noun

1. the act of dictating material to be recorded or taken down in writing

2. the material dictated

3. authoritative commands or the act of giving them

---

Other Word Forms

• dictational adjective
• nondictation noun

Etymology

Origin of dictation

1650–60; < Late Latin dictātiōn- (stem of dictātiō ) a dictating < Latin dictāt ( us ) ( dictate ) + -iōn- -ion

Example Sentences

Be it writing emails, sending SMS, designing a website, or giving AIs tasks, early adopters say dictation allow them to work faster, think more clearly, and be more productive.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 29, 2026

I’ve also begun dictating all my emails, Slack messages and everything else using the built-in dictation features on my Lenovo Chromebook Plus.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 24, 2026

Speech-to-text programs are becoming more popular for everyday tasks like hands-free dictation, helping people who are visually impaired, and transcribing speech for those who are hard of hearing.

From Science Daily • Nov. 21, 2024

The Champs-Élysées Committee has staged other open-air events in the past, including a mass movie showing and the world’s largest dictation event.

From Seattle Times • May 26, 2024

"No. My dad got me this tiny dictation thingy last year. It's like a notepad. I can record stuff and then play it back a couple times till it's memorized. My memory's gotten pretty good."

From "Things Not Seen" by Andrew Clements

Related Words

• transcription