dictate

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“
The way to dictate is to dictate,--not to hide indoors all day while your wife plots for you Does she do that?"

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Definitions (26)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (8)

  1. transitive verb To say or read aloud to be recorded or written by another: dictate a letter.
  2. transitive verb To prescribe with authority; impose: dictated the rules of the game.
  3. transitive verb To control or command: "Foreign leaders were . . . dictated by their own circumstances, bound by the universal imperatives of politics” (Doris Kearns Goodwin).
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Examples (50)

  • I received it with all the joy that the sincerest friendship would dictate, and with that impatience which an ardent desire to see you could not fail to inspire. —  Memoirs, Correspondence and Manuscripts of General Lafayette
  • I'll dictate, and you can scribble it down. —  Beasts and Super-Beasts
  • Philip was himself more resolved than ever to accompany the expedition in person and dictate from the English Channel the conditions of the pacification of Europe Secrecy was no longer attempted--indeed, was no longer possible. —  English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century Lectures Delivered at Oxford Easter Terms 1893-4
  • Why did England dictate, and France accept, terms of peace? —  The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783
  • In the lower forms he would set some boy to dictate, and while the boys were writing, would sit in the window with his eyes shut, dreaming; whether he dreamed of the future or recalled the past, everything seemed to him equally delightful, like a fairy tale. —  The Party
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This word has been looked up 172 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

prompting ·  precept ·  bound ·  embodiment ·  maxim ·  devoid ·  observance ·  mandate ·  semblance ·  obligation ·  violation ·  working

Used in the same contextWord Family

dictate:   dictates ·  dictating ·  dictated
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin dictāre, dictāt-, frequentative of dīcere, to say; see deik- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Latin dictatus, past participle of dictare (later Italian dettare, dittare = Spanish Portuguese Provencal dictar = French dicter, later D. dicteren = German dictiren = Danish diktere = Swedish diktera), say often, pronounce, declare, dictate (to another for writing), prescribe, order; freq. of dicere, past participle dictus, say: see diction.
  2. = Dutch dictaat = German dictat = Danish diktat, a dictate, = Old French dicte, dite, masculine, a dictation, French dictée, feminine, dictation (see ditty), = Spanish Portuguese dictado = Italian dittato, dettato, from Latin dictatum, usually in plural dictata, what is dictated, neuter past participle of dictare: see dictate, v. Cf. dight, indict, indite, ult. from Latin dictare.
 

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/ˈdɪkteɪt/
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