dictate

noun

/ˈdɪkˌteɪt//ˌdɪkˈteɪt/UK

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.

borrowed from dictātum — “a thing said, something dictated”

Definitions

1
An order or command.
- I must obey the dictates of my conscience.
2
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.
3
To speak in order for someone to write down the words.
- She is dictating a letter to a stenographer.
- The French teacher dictated a passage from Victor Hugo.
›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer
1. 4
  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.
  - Geology dictates the approximate location of the tunnel.
  - I didn't lay this bar, or the restaurant for that matter, out on paper. The design was dictated by the materials.

The neighborhood

neighbordictation
neighbordictator
neighbordictatress
neighbordictatoress
neighbordictatrix

Derived

dictatable, dictater, dictatingly, misdictate, redictate, undictated, undictating

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at dictate. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

A definitional loop anchored at dictate. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at dictate

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA