dictate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To speak words aloud for someone else to write down or record.

   Usage: For the recording sense, the speaker dictates the words and someone else writes or records them. Dictate a message to someone is a useful pattern.

   Please dictate the address slowly so I can write it down accurately.

   She dictated a letter to her assistant while looking out the window.

2. 2
   verb

   To control or strongly influence how something is done.

   Tradition still dictates how the ceremony must be performed.

3. 3
   verb

   To give orders in a forceful way.

   He had no right to dictate what the rest of us should wear.

4. 4
   noun

   An order, command, or guiding principle that must be obeyed.

   I must follow the dictates of my conscience.

Simplified etymology

Dictate entered English in the late 16th century and ultimately derives from Latin dicere, “to say.”

Borrowed from Latin forms of dictō, to say repeatedly or dictate, a verb related to dīcō and dīcere, to say.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary