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Dictation vs Dictionary - What's the difference?

dictation | dictionary |

As nouns the difference between dictation and dictionary

is that dictation is (uncountable) dictating, the process of speaking for someone else to write down the words while dictionary is a reference work with a list of words from one or more languages, normally ordered alphabetically and explaining each word's meaning and sometimes containing information on its etymology, usage, translations and other data.

As a verb dictionary is

(label) to look up in a dictionary.

dictation

English

Noun

  • (uncountable) Dictating, the process of speaking for someone else to write down the words
    • Since I learned shorthand, I can take dictation at eighty words a minute.
  • (countable) An activity in school where the teacher reads a passage aloud and the students write it down
    • 1908: Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables - We had reading and geography and Canadian history and dictation today.
  • (countable) The act of ordering or commanding
    • 1852:' Lysander Spooner, ''An Essay on the Trial by Jury'' - ...jurors in England have formerly understood it to be their right and duty to judge only according to their consciences, and not to submit to any ' dictation from the court, either as to law or fact.
  • (uncountable) Orders given in an overbearing manner
    • His habit, even with friends, was that of dictation .

    dictionary

    English

    Noun

    (dictionaries)
  • A reference work with a list of words from one or more languages, normally ordered alphabetically and explaining each word's meaning and sometimes containing information on its etymology, usage, translations and other data.
  • *
    • But what other kind(s) of syntactic information should be included in Lexical Entries? Traditional dictionaries' such as Hornby's (1974) ''Oxford Advanced Learner's '''Dictionary of Current English'' include not only ''categorial'' information in their entries, but also information about the range of ''Complements which a given item permits (this information is represented by the use of a number/letter code).
  • By extension, any work that has a list of material organized alphabetically; e.g. biographical dictionary, encyclopedic dictionary.
  • (label) An associative array, a data structure where each value is referenced by a particular key, analogous to words and definitions in a physical dictionary.
  • * 2011 , Jon Galloway, ?Phil Haack, ?Brad Wilson, Professional ASP.NET MVC 3
    • User calls RouteCollection.GetVirtualPath, passing in a RequestContext, a dictionary of values, and an optional route name used to select the correct route to generate the URL.
    * (Citations dictionary)

    Synonyms

    * wordbook

    Derived terms

    * encyclopedic dictionary * explanatory dictionary * fictionary * pedagogical dictionary * Pictionary * pronunciation dictionary * subdictionary * translating dictionary * translationary

    See also

    * lexicon * encyclopedia * vocabulary

    Anagrams

    *

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • (label) To look up in a dictionary.
  • (label) To add to a dictionary.
  • * 1866 , William Henry Ward, The international day, night, and fog signal telegraph (page 12)
    • By a reference to the following dictionaried abbreviations, the simplicity and harmony of each sentence will be manifestly apparent; although it does not embrace everything, and could not, as it would be far too voluminous for general use.
  • * 2001 , The Michigan Alumnus (page 25)
    • Should I use a word that a lot of people use but isn't in the dictionary? Uncle Phil would rather get a root canal than say he was scrapbooking, because the word isn't dictionaried .
  • To compile a dictionary.
  • * 1864 , Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (volume 96, page 334)
    • They [dictionary-makers] may have had their romance at home — may have been crossed in love, and thence driven to dictionarying ; may have been involved in domestic tragedies — who can say?
  • (label) To appear in a dictionary.