dictation
noun
Simple meaning
An activity in school where the teacher reads a passage aloud and the students write it down.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihktayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪkˈteɪʃən
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
countableuncountable
An activity in school where the teacher reads a passage aloud and the students write it down.
countableuncountable
Dictating, the process of speaking for someone else to write down the words.
countable
The act of ordering or commanding.
uncountable
Orders given in an overbearing manner.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An activity in school where the teacher reads a passage aloud and the students write it down.
Used this way, dictation is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in education or classroom contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Education/classroom
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use dictation
- “He signed and mailed his dictation without bothering to read it.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A tape recorder that records and reproduces dictation.
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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.