citation
noun
Simple meaning
A short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted passage.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sytayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
saɪˈteɪʃən
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
The act of citing a passage from a text, or from another person, using the exact words of the original text or speech and giving credit to the original by referencing.
A passage or expression that is quoted or cited
The passage or words quoted; a quotation.
A short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted passage
“The student's essay failed to list several important citations.”
An entry in a list of sources from which information was taken, typically following a prescribed bibliographical style; a reference.
A commendation in recognition of some achievement, or a formal statement of an achievement.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act of citing a passage from a text, or from another person, using the exact words of the original text or speech and giving credit to the original by referencing.
Used this way, citation is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use citation
- “The student's essay failed to list several important citations.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Word Family
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Compound terms
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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.