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Dictation: meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge University Press, 2026
Read the originalRead on October 16, 2026
- What it is
- The Cambridge Dictionary entry for dictation, combining the Cambridge Advanced Learner's, Academic Content and Business English dictionaries. It covers the office sense (speaking for someone to write down), the classroom sense (a language test) and the business sense (speaking for a person or machine to record).
- How much weight it carries
- A standard learner's and academic dictionary from Cambridge University Press. Definitions describe usage, not technology.
Facts taken from this source
- In schools, a dictation is a test in which a teacher reads a passage aloud and students learning a language write it down.
“a test in which a piece of writing is dictated to students learning a foreign language” (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, countable sense)
- The Cambridge English Dictionary defines dictation, as an uncountable noun, as the activity of dictating something for someone else to write down.
“the activity of dictating something for someone else to write down” (Entry for dictation, first sense (uncountable noun))
- The Cambridge Business English Dictionary defines dictation as speaking aloud for a person or a machine to record, so the words can be written down.
“the activity of speaking something aloud for a person or machine to record” (Cambridge Business English Dictionary)
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