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📝 To write out 🧬 To copy genes 🎼 To arrange music 🔡 To write sounds 🔤 To change script
to transcribe

to transcribe

1 4.4
To write words from one alphabet into another
  • verb
  • /trænˈskraɪb/
translation icon : transliterar
  • All interviews were transcribed verbatim by Rev.com, a technology-based company.
  • transcribe foreign-language words
  • transcribe into braille

Examples

  • After the completion of the interviews, they were transcribed in Arabic first and then translated into English.

    Academic text (2011)

  • I have used "e" to transcribe the tironian sign.

    Academic text (1998)

  • If I were to transcribe "Jahre" as "year," would you understand the word?

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Most teachers who transcribe materials do so with a Braille writer or computer software.

    Academic text (1996)

  • The interviews were transcribed verbatim, and all participants checked their interview transcript.

    Academic text (2018)

  • The interviews were audiotaped and subsequently transcribed from Cantonese to English.

    Academic text (2007)

  • The most commonly reported types of training were workshops that focused on braille transcribing (n = 49) or on-the-job training (n = 45).

    Academic text (2007)

  • Students acted merely as conduits to transcribe the teacher's feedback into their own handwriting, in such a way as to simulate revising without actually doing it.

    Academic text (2014)

  • His catechism from 1759, reprinted by Father Pacifique in 1913, remained the key written document in transcribed Micmac for their religious instruction.

    Academic text (2002)

  • The teacher asked the student to transcribe the lecture notes into a digital format for better accessibility.

Synonyms

to transliterate
vsto transcribe
1 7.7

To write words from one alphabet using the letters of another alphabet, not translate them

focuses on representing spoken or written words across different scripts
to Romanize
vsto transcribe
  • Specialized
1 6.9

To write words from another alphabet using Latin letters

is broader, allowing representation into any alphabet rather than only Latin
to Latinize
vsto transcribe
  • Specialized
7.7

Write a word or name using the Latin alphabet so people can read it

allows writing into any different script or alphabet not only Latin

How Literal

to transcribe
1 4.4
to render
129 4.7
to adapt
178 3.2

Surface Forms

transcribe infinitive
transcribed past
transcribed past participle
transcribing present participle
transcribes third person singular

Morphology

transcribe = scribe (transparent) = trans + scribe

The sense 'write into a different script' follows directly from 'trans-' (across) + 'scribe' (write).

Etymology

Transcribe comes from Latin trans- 'across' and scribere 'to write', and you can see the same root in script and scribe, words about writing. That's why to transcribe in writing or publishing means to copy words from one alphabet or script into another 'across' to a new form.