dictate

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a guiding principle

   the dictates of reason

2. 2
   verb

   say out loud for the purpose of recording

   I dictated a report to my tape recorder.

3. 3
   noun

   An order or command.

   I must obey the dictates of my conscience.

4. 4
   verb

   To order, command, control.

   Trademark Owners will nevertheless try to dictate how their marks are to be represented, but dictionary publishers with spine can resist such pressure.

5. 5
   verb

   To speak in order for someone to write down the words.

   She is dictating a letter to a stenographer.

6. 6
   verb

   To determine or decisively affect.

   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.

7. 7
   noun

   an authoritative rule

8. 8
   verb

   issue commands or orders for

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.