quotation
- 01 B1 Intermediate
a sentence or phrase that you repeat from a book, poem, or speech because it is interesting.
a fragment of human expression repeated by someone other than the original author, typically from a literary or historical source.
Simple“The teacher asked us to find a famous quotation about friendship for our essay.”
In context“The speaker opened her keynote address with a poignant quotation from a nineteenth-century philosopher to illustrate the timeless nature of the problem.”
UsageOften used with the preposition 'from' to indicate the source.
- 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
a formal statement of how much a piece of work or a service will cost.
a formal statement setting out the estimated cost for a particular job or service.
Simple“We asked three different builders for a quotation before we started the kitchen repairs.”
In context“The contractor provided a detailed quotation that itemised the costs for both raw materials and skilled labour over the six-month project.”
UsageIn business contexts, often shortened to 'quote'.
- 03 C1 Advanced
the act of repeating what someone else has said or written.
the action or practice of citing a source or repeating a passage.
Simple“The frequent quotation of old laws made the lawyer's speech very long.”
In context“The author's excessive quotation of secondary sources tended to obscure his own original contributions to the field of sociology.”
UsageUncountable in this sense.
Synonyms
Usage quotation mark · following quotation
The obsolete sense of “quota”, from Medieval Latin quotātiō, from Latin quotāre, is attested from the 15th century. The sense “fragment of verbal expression”, attested from the 17th century, may come from this source, or else from the verb quote + -ation.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.