dictate
UK /(ˌ)dɪkˈteɪt/ · US /ˈdɪkˌteɪt/ noun, verb
Forms dictates dictating dictated
- noun An order or command. “I must obey the dictates of my conscience.”
- verb To order, command, control. “Etiquette dictates that wedding invitations should be acknowledged in writing.”
- verb To speak in order for someone to write down the words. “She is dictating a letter to a stenographer.”
- verb To determine or decisively affect.
Synonyms
We issue replacements as necessity dictates. order prescribe
Etymology
First attested in 1581; borrowed from Latin dictātum (“a thing said, something dictated”), substantivized from the nominative neuter singular of dictātus, the perfect passive participle of dictō (“pronounce or declare repeatedly; dictate”), frequentative of dīcō (“say, speak”). Doublet of diktat.
First attested in 1577; borrowed from Latin dictātus, perfect passive participle of dictō (“to pronounce or declare repeatedly; to dictate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), frequentative of dīcō (“say, speak”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To tell or utter so that another may write down; to inspire; to compose; as, to dictate a letter to an amanuensis.
- verb To say; to utter; to communicate authoritatively; to deliver (a command) to a subordinate; to declare with authority; to impose; as, to dictate the terms of a treaty; a general dictates orders to his troops.
- verb To speak as a superior; to command; to impose conditions (on).
- verb To compose literary works; to tell what shall be written or said by another.
Etymology [L. dictatus, p. p. of dictare, freq. of dicere to say. See Diction, and cf. Dight.]
Etymology [L. dictatum. See Dictate, v. t.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “dictate”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details