dictate

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dictātus, perfect passive participle of dictō (“pronounce or declare repeatedly; dictate”), frequentative of dīcō (“say, speak”).

Pronunciation

Noun

  • IPA(key): /ˈdɪkˌteɪt/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)

Verb

Noun

dictate (plural dictates)

  1. An order or command.
    I must obey the dictates of my conscience.

Translations

Verb

dictate (third-person singular simple present dictates, present participle dictating, simple past and past participle dictated)

  1. To order, command, control.
    • 2001, Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 409:
      Trademark Owners will nevertheless try to dictate how their marks are to be represented, but dictionary publishers with spine can resist such pressure.
  2. To speak in order for someone to write down the words.
    She is dictating a letter to a stenographer.
    The French teacher dictated a passage from Victor Hugo.
  3. To determine or decisively affect.
    • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Return to Courtenaye Hall”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 151:
      He had offered, and been refused! There was that in her own nature, which sympathised with the pride, for such she held to be the motive, dictating the refusal.
    • 1961 December, “The Channel Tunnel—a realistic proposal”, in Trains Illustrated, page 723:
      Geology dictates the approximate location of the tunnel.
    • 1977 August 20, David Holland, quoting Tony Bosco, “Tony Bosco”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 7, page 19:
      I didn't lay this bar, or the restaurant for that matter, out on paper. The design was dictated by the materials.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Latin

Pronunciation

Participle

dictāte

  1. vocative masculine singular of dictātus

Verb

dictāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of dictō

Spanish

Verb

dictate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of dictar combined with te
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