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Shorthand vs Dictation - What's the difference?

shorthand | dictation |

As nouns the difference between shorthand and dictation

is that shorthand is a compendious and rapid method of writing by substituting symbols, for letters, words, etc.; short writing; stenography; phonography while dictation is dictating, the process of speaking for someone else to write down the words.

shorthand

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A compendious and rapid method of writing by substituting symbols, for letters, words, etc.; short writing; stenography; phonography
  • any brief or shortened way of saying or doing something
    • The jargon becomes a shorthand for these advanced concepts.

    See also

    * longhand * shorthanded English words with consonant pseudo-digraphs

    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 .