quote

The exact words spoken by another person can take the form of a quote. Sometimes we refer to this as "direct speech." The punctuation that indicates direct speech comes in the form of quotation marks (").

In these examples, the word "quote" is a verb:

• The reporters quoted the President of the United States when they wrote their articles about his speech.
• "I’m not in favor of this idea," he said. "You can quote me on that."
• Our teacher is able to quote Shakespeare very easily.

In these examples, the word "quote" is a noun:

• There were many memorable quotes that came out of the speech.
• The teacher asked us to use at least three quotes in our paper.
• "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." This well known quotation from Aristotle is worthy of consideration among political opponents.

Note: The words "quote" and "quotation" are very similar as nouns.

Click here to go to the Word of the Day page.

This page was first published on October 14, 2012. It was updated on April 17, 2015.