transcription

From Middle French transcription, or directly from Latin transcriptiōnem, from trānscrībō (“transcribe”).

• IPA^(key): /tɹænˈskɹɪpʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪpʃən
• Hyphenation: tran‧scrip‧tion

transcription (countable and uncountable, plural transcriptions)

1. The act or process of transcribing.
   • 1610, John Healey, transl., chapter 13, in The Citie of God, London: George Eld, translation of De civitate Dei contra paganos by St. Augustine, page 548:

     One might eaſier beleeue that the error was committed in the tranſcription of the copy from Ptolomies library, and ſo that it had a ſucceſſiue propagation through all the copies diſperſed.

   • 2003, James Holstein, Jaber F. Gubrium, Inside Interviewing: New Lenses, New Concerns, SAGE (→ISBN), page 268

     In other words, data are (re)constructed in the process of transcription as a result of multiple decisions that reflect both theoretical and ostensibly pragmatic considerations.

2. Something that has been transcribed, including:
   1. (music) An adaptation of a composition.

      These frame tale interludes frequently include transcriptions of Italian folk songs.

      • 2013, Gerald Abraham, Slavonic and Romantic Music: Essays and Studies, Faber & Faber (→ISBN)

        In other words, the adantino was written first as an independent piece; it is, moreover, hardly more than an elaborated transcription of the little song, ‘Im Herbste’, written in 1828, with its two exactly similar strophes (each only five bars long) and four-bar piano epilogue.

   2. (broadcasting) A recorded radio or television programme.
      • 1999, William L. Bird, "Better Living": Advertising, Media and the New Vocabulary of Business Leadership, 1935-1955, Northwestern University Press (→ISBN)

        From the outset, Selvage had hoped to interest NBC or CBS in broadcasting the American Family Robinson on a sustaining basis. Neither did, and the series ended up in transcription, recorded and circulated to individual stations by the World Broadcasting System.

   3. (linguistics) A representation of speech sounds as phonetic symbols.
      • 1977, Ali M. Al Kasimi, Linguistics and Bilingual Dictionaries, Brill Archive (→ISBN), page 37

        While the sounds of the language [English] undergo constant change and growth, the writing system is rarely reviewed or adapted to recent changes in speech. Consequently, there is a patent need for a transcription in linguistic research and dictionaries.

3. (obsolete) A written document.
   • 1638, Richard Braithwait, A Survey Of History: Or, A Nursery for Gentry, London: I. Okes, page 27:

     THeſe Ages have beene, and are to this day, much indebted to Tranſcriptions. Inventions are oft-times ſlow, where the application of things invented to the preſent State ſeemes more facile and eaſie : Hereto then ſhould the Scope of Hiſtories tend ; not onely to perſonate the Acts of men upon the Theater of this world, but likewiſe to cull out ſuch Lawes, Orders, and Precepts, as well Morall as Divine, which may benefit their preſent eſtate.

4. (genetics) The synthesis of RNA under the direction of DNA.
   • 2001, Richard Kowles, Solving Problems in Genetics, Springer Science & Business Media (→ISBN), page 315

     The process in which the DNA molecule unwinds, separates its two polynucleotide strands, and synthesizes an RNA molecule from one of these DNA strands is called transcription. Genes transcribe chemical messages in the form of RNA molecules. Transcription begins at some site in the DNA duplex and ends at some other point.

• musical dictation

• IPA^(key): /tʁɑ̃s.kʁip.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

transcription f (plural transcriptions)

1. transcription (all senses)