dialogue tag

dialogue tag noun: used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dialogue, tag.

Noun

dialogue tag (plural dialogue tags)

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dialogue, tag.
A sentence part that attributes a piece of written dialogue to its speaker. (e.g. In "Get out of here," he said, "he said" is a dialogue tag.)
- Not every paragraph of dialogue needs to have a dialogue tag attached to it.
- Sometimes inexperienced writers will discover the useful tool of tacking on detail to a dialog tag with a present participal or adverbial phrase: "It's too late," she said, closing the door.2000, Tom Romano, Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers, →ISBN, page 63

An alternative style forsakes italics altogether and assigns a dialogue tag: This is going nowhere, he thought.2011, Deborah Halverson, Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons:
A line of dialogue followed by a dialogue tag looks like this: “Nothing suits me better than a fried egg on toast early in the morning,” Billy said.2015, Kris James with Laura E. Koons and Stefanie Spangler Buswell, Beyond the Style Manual: Bundle #1, Red Adept Publishing:

plural	dialogue tags

What does dialogue tag mean?: Dialogue tag means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dialogue, tag.
How do you use dialogue tag in a sentence?: An alternative style forsakes italics altogether and assigns a dialogue tag: This is going nowhere, he thought.
What part of speech is dialogue tag?: Dialogue tag is a noun.
What is the plural of dialogue tag?: The plural of dialogue tag is dialogue tags.

Adapted from Wiktionary: dialogue tag (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “dialogue tag.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dialogue_tag. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.