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Speech to text (STT)

Also: speech-to-text, transcription

In plain words

Software that turns speech into text. Check names, numbers, and words it may have misheard.

The fuller definition

Speech-to-text systems convert recorded or live speech into written text.

How it fits together

Audio
Spoken words
Recognition
Estimate the words
Transcript
Text to verify

A simplified relationship, not a screenshot or a complete design.

A concrete example

Dictated meeting notes become a transcript that is then edited separately.

The distinction that matters

Recognition can alter names, numbers, and negations; polished rewriting can conceal those errors.

Related terms

Multimodal

Able to work with more than text, such as images, audio, or video.

Speaker diarization

Working out who said what in a recording.

Text to speech (TTS)

Software that reads text aloud. Some tools can also imitate a voice.

Where it is taught

What actually happens when you ask AI a question?

Source and further reading

Hugging Face · Speech recognition

The definition and example are written for this library. The link gives background, official documentation or legal authority as labelled. Legal scope depends on the jurisdiction and current text; product features depend on release and settings.