transcription

/træntˈskrɪpʃən/

/trænˈskrɪpʃən/

Other forms: transcriptions

A transcription is the document made by copying down in writing something that you listen to, like audio tapes, an interview, or comments made during a meeting.

If you watch TV crime dramas, you’ve probably seen someone take a transcription while cops interview a suspect — that person is writing down all the things that are said. Transcription can also refer to the process of transcribing. If you’re a musician, you probably know that transcription can also describe adapting a piece of music for different instruments, like a cello transcription of a Beatles song.

Definitions of transcription

1. noun

   something written, especially copied from one medium to another, as a typewritten version of dictation
   synonyms: written text

   types:

   transliteration

   a transcription from one alphabet to another

   phonetic transcription

   a transcription intended to represent each distinct speech sound with a separate symbol

   type of:

   black and white, written communication, written language

   communication by means of written symbols (either printed or handwritten)
2. noun

   the act of arranging and adapting a piece of music
   synonyms: arrangement, arranging

   types:

   rearrangement

   changing an arrangement

   instrumentation, orchestration

   the act of arranging a piece of music for an orchestra and assigning parts to the different musical instruments

   orchestration

   an arrangement of events that attempts to achieve a maximum effect

   juggle, juggling

   the act of rearranging things to give a misleading impression

   musical chairs

   a rearrangement that has no practical effect or significance

   reordering

   a rearrangement in a different order

   transposition

   (electricity) a rearrangement of the relative positions of power lines in order to minimize the effects of mutual capacitance and inductance

   type of:

   composing, composition

   musical creation
3. noun

   the act of making a record (especially an audio record)
   synonyms: recording

   types:

   lip sync, lip synch, lip synchronisation, lip synchronization

   combining audio and video recording in such a way that the sound is perfectly synchronized with the action that produced it; especially synchronizing the movements of a speaker's lips with the sound of his speech

   mastering

   the act of making a master recording from which copies can be made

   type of:

   creating from raw materials

   the act of creating something that is different from the materials that went into it
4. noun

   a sound or television recording (e.g., from a broadcast to a tape recording)
   type of:

   recording

   a storage device on which information (sounds or images) have been recorded
5. noun

   (genetics) the organic process whereby the DNA sequence in a gene is copied into mRNA; the process whereby a base sequence of messenger RNA is synthesized on a template of complementary DNA
   type of:

   biological process, organic process

   a process occurring in living organisms