Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of citing.
  • noun A quotation of or explicit reference to a source for substantiation, as in a scholarly paper.
  • noun Law A reference to a previous court decision or other authority for a point of law, usually by case title and other information.
  • noun Enumeration or mention, as of facts, especially.
  • noun An official commendation for meritorious action, especially in military service.
  • noun A formal statement of the accomplishments of one being honored with an academic degree.
  • noun An official summons, especially one calling for appearance in court.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A summons; an official call or notice given to a person to appear in a court and answer to a demand; a call or notice to appear.
  • noun The paper containing such notice or call.
  • noun The act of citing or quoting a passage from a book, or a statement in the words of the one who made it; hence, the passage or words quoted; a quotation.
  • noun Specifically, in law, a reference to decided cases, or to statutes, treatises, or other authorities, to maintain a point of law.
  • noun Enumeration; mention.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An official summons or notice given to a person to appear; the paper containing such summons or notice.
  • noun The act of citing a passage from a book, or from another person, in his own words; also, the passage or words quoted; quotation.
  • noun Enumeration; mention.
  • noun (Law) A reference to decided cases, or books of authority, to prove a point in law.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An official summons or notice given to a person to appear; the paper containing such summons or notice.
  • noun The act of citing a passage from a book, or from another person, in his own words.
  • noun The passage or words quoted; quotation.
  • noun Enumeration; mention; as, a citation of facts.
  • noun A reference to decided cases, or books of authority, to prove a point in law.
  • noun A commendation in recognition of some achievement, or a formal statement of an achievement.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (law) the act of citing (as of spoken words or written passages or legal precedents etc.)
  • noun a passage or expression that is quoted or cited
  • noun a short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted passage
  • noun thoroughbred that won the triple crown in 1948
  • noun a summons that commands the appearance of a party at a proceeding
  • noun an official award (as for bravery or service) usually given as formal public statement

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

cite +‎ -ation

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word citation.

Examples

  • There are 50 titles in the Code, and a section citation without a title citation is as useless as a citation to “Encyclopedia Britannica, page 382.”

    The Volokh Conspiracy » California High School Sends Kids Home for Wearing American Flag on Cinco de Mayo 2010

  • Not that I doubt you or anything LiL Freddy ♪ ♫ ♪, but would you care to provide a link or citation for that? bend over and look between your legs, your citation is there.

    Think Progress » As Republicans Block Unemployment Insurance, Kyl Calls For Extending The Benefits 2010

  • And what you chose to leave out in your citation is a section that has far greater salience to issue of running both the convention and the country with far greater fiscal responsibility that the current administration and its conservative enablers ever have:

    New G.O.P. Ad for McCain on Energy - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com 2008

  • The large project mentioned in the citation is the antiproton project at CERN, the international centre for research devoted to the study of elementary particles, which has

    The Nobel Prize in Physics 1984 - Presentation Speech 1984

  • When viewers filed complaints over the Cincinnati Reds smoking cigars during their victory celebration, a violation of the state's smoking ban, R.F. wrote at Facebook at "Len Berman's Top 5," They drink champagne, get in their cars and drive home, and the citation is for smoking a cigar in the locker room?

    Len Berman: Top 5 Sports Stories Len Berman 2010

  • When viewers filed complaints over the Cincinnati Reds smoking cigars during their victory celebration, a violation of the state's smoking ban, R.F. wrote at Facebook at "Len Berman's Top 5," They drink champagne, get in their cars and drive home, and the citation is for smoking a cigar in the locker room?

    Len Berman: Top 5 Sports Stories Len Berman 2010

  • Indeed, there are a number of exceptions of Prizewinners who have received quite few nominations and who also rank quite low in citation indices, pronounced examples being Kantorovich, Stone, Haavelmo, Allais, Meade and Ohlin (though the Heckscher-Ohlin model is frequently referred to in the literature).

    The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1969-2006 2010

  • When viewers filed complaints over the Cincinnati Reds smoking cigars during their victory celebration, a violation of the state's smoking ban, R.F. wrote at Facebook at "Len Berman's Top 5," They drink champagne, get in their cars and drive home, and the citation is for smoking a cigar in the locker room?

    Len Berman: Top 5 Sports Stories Len Berman 2010

  • That prompted an audit of his service record, he said, adding that he later received the citation from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

    Eric Gene Piotrowski 2010

  • (There have, in fact, been several classified CMoH's, most notably the content of a Navy SEAL's citation from the Vietnam War (but the fact of his award was public-his citation was declassified many years later), and existence of a CMoH for a Korean War Soldier who was captured and held as a POW till repatriated at the end of the war, so he would not suffer reprisals or be used for propaganda purposes.)

    Lawdermild, Keavin Lee 2010

Comments

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  • Well, I'm enjoyin' my day in the sun at the top of the "Citations" list, but the hurrier I go the behinder I gets. That Reesetee's relentless and keeps growing bigger in my rear-view mirror! Yikes! It's only a manner of time and I'll be eatin' her dust...yet again!!

    August 22, 2007

  • Careful, oroboros. Them's fightin' words. When reesetee reads that, he ain't gon' be none too pleased.

    August 22, 2007

  • Whoops! Coulda swore otherwise!

    August 22, 2007

  • Haha! GUESS! :-D

    August 22, 2007

  • Wait a minute--where's slumry these days? She normally beats the pants off everyone else on the Citations list! :-)

    August 22, 2007

  • Never fear. Once hooked, allus kotched. 'Cept the ones what slip the hook, o' course. ;o)

    August 24, 2007

  • Spoken like a true Wordiephile.

    August 24, 2007

  • It gives me a warm little glow to look at the citations stats on the homepage (currently topping 35,000) and know that over a thousand of them are mine.

    November 15, 2007

  • Well, get with it girl! Only 34,000 to go. Wait, that's unpossibobble...(ain't it?). *scratching head*

    November 19, 2007

  • See gangerh's profile for comments on what a citation actually is.

    January 27, 2008

  • citation needed

    January 28, 2008