dictate

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To say or read aloud to be recorded or written by another: dictate a letter.
2. v. To prescribe with authority; impose: dictated the rules of the game.
3. v. To control or command: "Foreign leaders were . . . dictated by their own circumstances, bound by the universal imperatives of politics” ( Doris Kearns Goodwin).
4. v. To say or read aloud material to be recorded or written by another: dictated for an hour before leaving for the day.
5. v. To issue orders or commands.
6. n. A directive; a command.
7. n. A guiding principle: followed the dictates of my conscience.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To declare or prescribe with authority; direct or command positively, as being right, necessary, or inevitable: as, conscience dictates truthfulness and fair dealing; to dictate a course of conduct, or terms of surrender.
2. To be the determining cause or motive of; fix or decide positively or unavoidably: as, necessity dictated the abandonment of the ship; his conduct is dictated by false pride.
3. To express orally for another to write down; give utterance or form to, as something to be written: as, to dictate a letter to a clerk.
4. Synonyms To command, prescribe, enjoin, require.
5. To practise dictation; act or speak dictatorially; exercise controlling or arbitrary authority; assume a dictatorial, dogmatic, or commanding attitude.
6. n. A positive order or command; an authoritative or controlling direction.
7. n. An authoritative rule, maxim, or precept; a guiding principle: as, the dictates of conscience or of reason.
8. n. Dictation.
9. n. That which is dictated; a dictated utterance.
10. n. Synonyms and Injunction, admonition.

Wiktionary

1. n. An order or command.
2. v. To order, command, control.
3. v. To speak in order for someone to write down the words.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To tell or utter so that another may write down; to inspire; to compose.
2. v. To say; to utter; to communicate authoritatively; to deliver (a command) to a subordinate; to declare with authority; to impose
3. v. To speak as a superior; to command; to impose conditions (on).
4. v. To compose literary works; to tell what shall be written or said by another.
5. n. A statement delivered with authority; an order; a command; an authoritative rule, principle, or maxim; a prescription

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an authoritative rule
2. n. a guiding principle
3. v. say out loud for the purpose of recording
4. v. rule as a dictator
5. v. issue commands or orders for