quotation

American  

[kwoh-tey-shuhn] / kwoʊˈteɪ ʃən /

noun

• quotations
  plural

1. something that is quoted; a passage quoted from a book, speech, etc..

   a speech full of quotations from Lincoln's letters.

   Synonyms:

   selection, citation, extract

2. the act or practice of quoting.

3. Commerce.

   1. the statement of the current or market price of a commodity or security.

   2. the price so stated.

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quotation British  

/ kwəʊˈteɪʃən /

noun

1. a phrase or passage from a book, poem, play, etc, remembered and spoken, esp to illustrate succinctly or support a point or an argument

2. the act or habit of quoting from books, plays, poems, etc

3. commerce a statement of the current market price of a security or commodity

4. an estimate of costs submitted by a contractor to a prospective client; tender

5. stock exchange registration granted to a company or governmental body, enabling the shares and other securities of the company or body to be officially listed and traded

6. printing a large block of type metal that is less than type-high and is used to fill up spaces in type pages

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• prequotation
  noun
• self-quotation
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• quotations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of quotation

1525–35; 1810–15 quotation for def. 3; < Medieval Latin quotātiōn- (stem of quotātiō ), equivalent to quotāt ( us ) (past participle of quotāre; see quote) + -iōn- -ion

Explanation

A quotation is the exact words of someone else. When you like what someone said, put their quotation in your writing. Quotations are a big part of writing. People use quotations when something is well-said. A quotation from someone famous or smart can help make your own point sound better. When you use a quotation, always remember to put it in quotation marks and give proper credit. Also, don't change any of the words: a quotation should be exactly what the person said or wrote.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

quotation quotations

Instead, discussions rely heavily on selective quotation, vocal individuals or assumptions about community views.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 9, 2026

And by my use of quotation marks, I mean the public Fauci, as opposed to the private Fauci.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

Younger parents who grew up in the digital age have done their research — “research” in quotation marks — for months.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

Bucket shop patrons were positioned heavily for Amalgamated to rise, so the proprietors shorted the stock “to establish as low a quotation as possible,” the Journal wrote.

From Barron's ● Apr. 7, 2026

As he began talking, he read his audience a quotation from WHO: “MDR is too expensive to treat in poor countries; it detracts attention and resources from treating drug-susceptible disease.”

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French

In several of her novels, Ms. Mandel has had characters with beloved quotations tattooed on their bodies, a practice that inspired a real-life trend of the author’s fans being inked with lines from her books.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

Lyrics and quotations run up the steps towards the stadium.

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

The following year, Pulte even produced a slim volume annotating some of his grandfather’s sayings and quotations.

From Salon ● Jun. 9, 2026

A pair of Orange County immigration attorneys received temporary suspensions after the court discovered they used generative AI to write briefs that included “multiple nonexistent cases, misattributed quotations, and gross misrepresentations.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026

Like all great communicators, he loved language: he wrote a whole book about the word ‘serendipity’, another about the phrase ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’, and he co-edited a volume of social science quotations.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Related Words

• excerpt
• passage
• quote
• reference