Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Choice and use of words in speech or writing.
- n. Degree of clarity and distinctness of pronunciation in speech or singing; enunciation.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Expression of ideas by words; manner of saying; choice or selection of words; style.
- n. A word.
- n. Synonyms Diction, Phraseology, Style. Diction refers chiefly to the choice of words in any utterance or composition. Phraseology refers more to the manner of combining the words into phrases, clauses, and sentences: as, legal phraseology; but it also necessarily involves diction to some extent. Style covers both and more, referring not only to the words and the manner in which they are combined, but to everything that relates to the form in which thought is expressed, including peculiarities more or less personal to the writer or speaker.
- n. Dialect, Idiom, etc. See language.
Wiktionary
- n. The effectiveness and degree of clarity of word choice, and presentation of said words.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Choice of words for the expression of ideas; the construction, disposition, and application of words in discourse, with regard to clearness, accuracy, variety, etc.; mode of expression; language.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the articulation of speech regarded from the point of view of its intelligibility to the audience
- n. the manner in which something is expressed in words
Etymologies
- Middle English diccion, a saying, word, from Old French, from Latin dictiō, dictiōn-, rhetorical delivery, from dictus, past participle of dīcere, to say, speak; see deik- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Shit, now my diction is all off b/c I in no way intend to equate you or anyone with blogtards.”
“Is this about intellect or insane skills in diction?”
“I think it's the sort of piece where if the diction is really energetically articulated, it carries a lot of the musical line with it, and the mezzo's diction was particularly clear.”
“Maybe he's too cute, maybe his diction is too good, maybe he doesn't have enough tough-sounding consonants in his name.”
“Poetic language and elevated diction is an obstacle to understanding for "ordinary" people, Wordsworth seems to be saying.”
“The classically trained singers that I've heard inevitably sound less than spontaneous, to be charitable, and their diction is invariably too "correct" and too lots of other things that I don't want to hear.”
“The diction is simple and crisp, the details are acute, as metaphors slowly assemble, cloud-like, creating a melancholic atmosphere.”
Hello vast emptiness, : Jeffrey McDaniel : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation
“Hence, although emotion is the overriding topic, paradoxically it is not immediacy but diffuseness in diction, syntax, and argument that has manifested itself as the overriding style.”
“The Cure of Poetry in an Age of Prose” : Ange Mlinko : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation
“All forms of English are more or less mutually intelligible, with some important variations in diction and vocabulary.”
“I don't think they should be disregarded, but Bloom is not particularly interested in diction, or stylistic norms and deviations, unless they tell his ear about a deviant borrowing from precursors.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘diction’.
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Language
word, sentence, novel, book, novella, vignette, memoir, anthology, paragraph, stanza, poem, haiku and 123 more...
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dict-
of or relating to speech
dictation, dictionary, dictaphone, dicta, dictum, dictagraph, dictate, dictatorial, dictator, dictatorship, diction, dictating and 4 more...
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Ending
satan, treason, foreign tension, blacken, reason, hidden, intentions, fallen demon, diction, slogan, jargon, sermon and 27 more...
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Terms for AP Lit
This list is designed to be a reference for my AP Lit. students
symbolism, archetype, polysyndeton, ellipsis, anaphora, diction, asyndeton, chiasmus, syntax, oxymoron, logos, fallacy and 28 more...
milosrdenstvi "If I hadn't in elegant diction
Indulged in an innocent fiction
Which is not in the same category
As telling a regular terrible story." Aug 20, 2008