dictationdic‧ta‧tion /dɪkˈteɪʃən/ noun 
There were no secretaries available to take dictation (=write down what someone is saying).2[countable] a piece of writing that a teacher reads out to test your ability to hear and write the words correctly: I hate doing French dictations.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- I hate doing French dictations.
- And there were no assistants or secretaries to take dictation or run off copies for me.
- Finally, you can present the text orally as a partial dictation, with students filling in missing words as they listen.
- It's a spectacular scene and I make a point of leaving my dictation and watching through the curtains each evening.
- The examination will consist of 6 assignments - 5 pieces of dictation and a manuscript assignment.
- The layout and print is easy on the eye and the revision passages for dictation becomes increasingly difficult as the book progresses.
- The popular image of a secretary is one who types and takes dictation.
WORD SETS
accented, adjectiveAfrikaans, nounAnglo-Saxon, nounArabic, nounBengali, nounbilingual, adjectiveCantonese, nounChinese, nounconversant, adjectivecreole, nounDanish, noundialect, noundictation, noundirect method, noundub, verbDutch, nounEnglish, nounEsperanto, nounFarsi, nounFlemish, nounfluent, adjectiveFrancophone, adjectiveFranglais, nounFrench, adjectiveGaelic, nounGerman, nounGermanic, adjectiveGreek, nounHebraic, adjectiveHebrew, nounHindi, nounIndo-European, adjectiveItalian, nounItalo-, prefixJapanese, nounLatin, nounLatin, adjectivelinguist, nounlinguistics, nounMandarin, nounMaori, nounmodern language, nounmonolingual, adjectivemother tongue, nounmultilingual, adjectivenative speaker, nounoral, nounpatois, nounPersian, nounPolish, adjectivePortuguese, nounRomance language, nounRomany, nounRussian, nounSanskrit, nounsecond language, nounSemitic, adjectivesign, nounsign, verbsign language, nounSinhalese, nounSpanish, nounspeak, verb-speak, suffixspeaker, nounSwedish, nountransliterate, verbTurkish, nounUrdu, nounusage, nounvernacular, nounvocabulary, nounWelsh, noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY There were no secretaries available to take dictation (=write down what someone is saying). I hate doing French dictations.COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSVERB
1[uncountable] when you say words for someone to write down: There were no secretaries available to take dictation (=write down what someone is saying). I hate doing French dictations.· My last boss used to fumble under my skirt when I took dictation.· The popular image of a secretary is one who types and takes dictation.· No time to waste: a 1920s typist takes dictation as the train speeds to the next business meeting.· And there were no assistants or secretaries to take dictation or run off copies for me.
There were no secretaries available to take dictation (=write down what someone is saying).2[countable] a piece of writing that a teacher reads out to test your ability to hear and write the words correctly: I hate doing French dictations.