Fact · Dictation for work and study
The Collins English Dictionary defines a copytaker, a term used in newspaper offices, as a person employed to type reports as journalists dictate them over the telephone.
Checked against its source on October 17, 2026
In the source's own words
“a person employed to type reports as journalists dictate them over the telephone”
copytaker: Collins English Dictionary definition, HarperCollins Publishers, Collins English Dictionary, reproduced on Dictionary.com, 2012, Definition.
Open the original- What it measures
- Before reporters filed by computer, a copytaker at the newspaper took down copy that a reporter read aloud over the phone.
- What it does not show
- A dictionary definition. It does not give the number of copytakers or the years the role was common.