transcribe

verb

tran·​scribe tran(t)-ˈskrīb 

transcribed; transcribing

transitive verb

1

a

: to make a written copy of

b

: to make a copy of (dictated or recorded matter) in longhand or on a machine (such as a typewriter)

c

: to paraphrase or summarize in writing

d

: write down, record

2

a

: to represent (speech sounds) by means of phonetic symbols

b

: translate sense 1a

c

: to transfer (data) from one recording form to another

d

: to record (as on magnetic tape) for later broadcast

3

: to make a musical transcription of

4

: to cause (DNA or RNA) to undergo genetic transcription

transcriber noun

Examples of transcribe in a Sentence

He transcribed all of his great-grandfather's letters.

The senator's speech was transcribed.

a Mozart string quartet transcribed for piano

a system that allows linguists to transcribe the sounds of any language

Recent Examples on the Web

Artificial intelligence is increasingly infused into many aspects of health care, from transcribing patient visits to detecting cancers and deciphering histology slides. —Nicholas St. Fleur, STAT, 27 June 2024

Please note that there might be slight discrepancies due to the AI used to transcribe the conversation. —Kaely Monahan, The Arizona Republic, 7 Aug. 2024

OpenAI has been sued by a YouTuber whose videos were transcribed and used to train its artificial intelligence system, opening a new front in the legal battle against companies leading development of the technology. —Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Aug. 2024

However, the New York Times reported days later that OpenAI had transcribed over a million hours of YouTube videos to train its GPT-4 model. —Britney Nguyen, Quartz, 16 July 2024

Word History

Etymology

Latin transcribere, from trans- + scribere to write — more at scribe

First Known Use

1552, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

transcribe

verb

tran·​scribe tran(t)s-ˈkrīb 

transcribed; transcribing

1

a

: to make a written copy of

b

: to make a copy of (dictated or recorded matter) by hand or on a machine (as a typewriter)

2

: to represent speech sounds with phonetic symbols

transcriber noun

Medical Definition

transcribe

transitive verb

tran·​scribe tran(t)s-ˈkrīb 

transcribed; transcribing

: to cause (as DNA) to undergo genetic transcription