quotation

[kwoh-tey-shuhn]

noun

1. something that is quoted; a passage quoted from a book, speech, etc..

   a speech full of quotations from Lincoln's letters.

   Synonyms: selection, citation, extract

2. the act or practice of quoting.

3. Commerce.

   1. the statement of the current or market price of a commodity or security.

   2. the price so stated.

quotation

/ kwəʊˈteɪʃən /

noun

1. a phrase or passage from a book, poem, play, etc, remembered and spoken, esp to illustrate succinctly or support a point or an argument

2. the act or habit of quoting from books, plays, poems, etc

3. commerce a statement of the current market price of a security or commodity

4. an estimate of costs submitted by a contractor to a prospective client; tender

5. stock exchange registration granted to a company or governmental body, enabling the shares and other securities of the company or body to be officially listed and traded

6. printing a large block of type metal that is less than type-high and is used to fill up spaces in type pages

Other Word Forms

• prequotation noun
• self-quotation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of quotation¹

1525–35; 1810–15 quotation for def. 3; < Medieval Latin quotātiōn- (stem of quotātiō ), equivalent to quotāt ( us ) (past participle of quotāre; quote ) + -iōn- -ion

Example Sentences

He also put quotation marks around the word congresswoman in a move to delegitimize Crockett’s stature and demeaned the progressive group of mostly women House members of color known as the Squad.

From Salon

That quotation is nearly 20 years old, but scientists still don’t know exactly to what extent DMS is responsible for seeding clouds, just that it’s a significant factor.

From Salon

According to MacDonald, it took his organization’s staff only a minute to put the text in quotation marks and run it through Google.

From Salon

Your favorite truism about the power of history may apply here; mine comes courtesy of Salon contributor Mike Lofgren: “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat famous quotations.”

From Salon

James Joyce’s "Ulysses" rained em dashes on winding sentences that he had already stripped of quotation marks, resulting in prose so unruly that numerous reading groups are devoted specifically to parsing it.

From Salon

Related Words

• excerpt 
• passage 
• quote 
• reference