transcription
Americannoun
-
transcriptions
plural
-
the act or process of transcribing.
-
something transcribed.
-
a transcript; copy.
-
Music.
-
the arrangement of a composition for a medium other than that for which it was originally written.
-
a composition so arranged.
-
-
Radio and Television. a recording made especially for broadcasting.
-
Genetics. the process by which genetic information on a strand of DNA is used to synthesize a strand of complementary RNA.
noun
-
the act or an instance of transcribing or the state of being transcribed
-
something transcribed
-
a representation in writing of the actual pronunciation of a speech sound, word, or piece of continuous text, using not a conventional orthography but a symbol or set of symbols specially designated as standing for corresponding phonetic values
-
The process in a cell by which genetic material is copied from a strand of DNA to a complementary strand of RNA (called messenger RNA). In eukaryotes, transcription takes place in the nucleus before messenger RNA is transported to the ribosomes for protein synthesis.
-
Compare translation
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
mistranscriptionnoun
-
nontranscriptionnoun
-
pretranscriptionnoun
-
retranscriptionnoun
-
transscriptionistnoun
-
nontranscriptiveadjective
-
transcriptionaladjective
-
transcriptiveadjective
-
transcriptionallyadverb
-
transcriptivelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of transcription
First recorded in 1590–1600, transcription is from the Latin word trānscrīptiōn- (stem of trānscrīptiō ). See transcript, -ion
Explanation
A transcription is the document made by copying down in writing something that you listen to, like audio tapes, an interview, or comments made during a meeting. If you watch TV crime dramas, you’ve probably seen someone take a transcription while cops interview a suspect — that person is writing down all the things that are said. Transcription can also refer to the process of transcribing. If you’re a musician, you probably know that transcription can also describe adapting a piece of music for different instruments, like a cello transcription of a Beatles song.
Vocabulary lists containing transcription
The Write Stuff: Scrib, Script
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Genetics - High School
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
STAAR Biology: Mechanisms of Genetics
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Janet Arnold brings Elizabeth’s court to life with her revelatory transcription of the royal wardrobe accounts, including descriptions of 2,000 of the queen’s phantasmagorical dresses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
Researchers generally need distinct transcription factors for separate operations so that signals do not interfere with one another.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
It comes months after the BBC heard from doctors in the West Midlands, who said their workload had been significantly cut by using the transcription tool Heidi.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
The paper, "Dose-dependent sensitivity of human three-dimensional chromatin to a heart disease-linked transcription factor," was published in the journal Science on July 23, 2026.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 13, 2026
That, he reflected, might almost have been a transcription from one of the Party textbooks.
From "1984" by George Orwell
In general, laws don’t distinguish between recordings and transcriptions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
A congressional panel investigating late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has released transcriptions of interviews with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Ted Waitt, the billionaire co-founder of Gateway computers.
From BBC ● May 14, 2026
This week, while releasing new AI models for internal uses, such as transcriptions, he described them External link to the Financial Times as “mid-class” and not in competition with the best frontier models.
From Barron's ● Apr. 4, 2026
“These similarities are further reflected in the side-by-side transcriptions of the musical scores for the Udio file and the original recording.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2025
Unfortunately, the programs we have at present are too often transcriptions onto television monitors of unimaginative lists of routine exercises taken from the textbooks.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
