dictate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

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

   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.

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.

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