Glossary → Transcription & speech recognition
Transcription & speech recognition

Word-level timestamps

Word-level timestamps attach a start and end time to every individual word in a transcript, rather than to whole sentences or segments.

Per-word timing enables interactive transcripts (click a word, the audio seeks there), tight caption timing, silence-trimmed clips and edit-by-text video workflows.

Recognition models emit approximate word times; when tighter precision is needed, a forced-alignment pass refines them against the audio.

Related terms

Forced alignmentForced alignment is the process of taking an existing transcript and an audio recording and computing exactly … TimestampingTimestamping marks transcript text with the time it occurs in the recording — per segment, per speaker turn, o… Subtitle timingSubtitle timing (spotting) is deciding when each caption appears and disappears — synchronized to speech onset…

Frequently asked

What is Word-level timestamps?

Word-level timestamps attach a start and end time to every individual word in a transcript, rather than to whole sentences or segments.

Why does Word-level timestamps matter?

Per-word timing enables interactive transcripts (click a word, the audio seeks there), tight caption timing, silence-trimmed clips and edit-by-text video workflows.

What terms are related to Word-level timestamps?

Closely related concepts: Forced alignment, Timestamping, Subtitle timing — each has its own entry in this glossary.

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