blotter
noun
Simple meaning
The daily written record of events in a police station.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
blahterSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈblɑtɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
law enforcement
The daily written record of events (as arrests) in a police station
A register of the related events made in the form of the list of times and brief descriptions.
A piece of blotting paper in a pad as a piece of desk furniture.
law enforcement
A daily register of arrests and other events in a police station.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The daily written record of events (as arrests) in a police station
Used this way, blotter is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Law/legal
- Government/politics
- Academic writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.