dictate
/ˈdɪkˌteɪt//(ˌ)dɪkˈteɪt/
dictate noun: an order or command.
Noun
dictate (plural dictates)
Verb
dictate (third-person singular simple present dictates, present participle dictating, simple past and past participle dictated)
- To order, command, control.
- Etiquette dictates that wedding invitations should be acknowledged in writing.
- Trademark Owners will nevertheless try to dictate how their marks are to be represented, but dictionary publishers with spine can resist such pressure.2001, Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 409
- 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.
- 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.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Return to Courtenaye Hall”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 151
- Geology dictates the approximate location of the tunnel.1961 December, “The Channel Tunnel—a realistic proposal”, in Trains Illustrated, page 723
- Synonyms:
- We issue replacements as necessity dictates.
dictate meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
dictate in Tamil
- ஆணையிடு, எழுதக் கூறு
dictate in Marathi
- an order or command
- हुकुम hukum
dictate in Urdu
- حکم دینا
dictate in Bengali
- নির্দেশ দেওয়া, মুখে বলে লেখানো
More languagesFewer languages
- dictate in Malayalam
- പറഞ്ഞെഴുതിക്കുക
- dictate in Kannada
- ಹೇಳಿಬರೆಸು, ಉಕ್ತಲೇಖನ ಕೊಡು, ಕಟ್ಟಲೆಯಿಡು, ಅಪ್ಪಣೆ ಕೊಡು
- dictate in Tagalog
- diktahan
- dictate in Arabic
- إِمْلَاء ʔimlāʔ, أَمْلَى ʔamlā, أَكْتَبَ ʔaktaba
Examples of dictate in a sentence
- The driver engages the follower intermittently, as dictated by the solenoid.
- Adyghe Khabze dictates that guests must be treated with the utmost respect and hospitality.
- Puritan austerity was so tempered by Dutch indifference, that mercy itself could not have dictated a milder system.
Synonyms of dictate
- We issue replacements as necessity dictates.
Forms of dictate
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | dictates |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | dictates |
| present participle | dictating |
| past participle | dictated |
| past | dictated |
Origin of dictate
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.
First attested in 1577; borrowed from Latin dictātus, perfect passive participle of dictō (“to pronounce or declare repeatedly; to dictate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), frequentative of dīcō (“say, speak”).
Words formed from dictate
Words that rhyme with dictate
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- mate
- late
- bate
- create
- date
- relate
- vibrate
- wait
- deflate
- fate
- migrate
- rebate
- rotate
- strait
- supererogate
- translocate
- await
- eight
- freight
- skate
- alternate
- collate
- debate
- inflate
- sedate
- update
- compensate
- delate
- dilate
- fixate
- grate
- Haight
- hate
- implicate
- innate
- intercalate
- locate
- mandate
- negate
- overweight
- pinnate
- quadrate
- tate
- vacate
- aerate
- calibrate
- castrate
- conflate
Questions about dictate
- What does dictate mean?
- Dictate means an order or command.
- What is dictate in Tamil?
- Dictate in Tamil is ஆணையிடு, எழுதக் கூறு. See Dictate meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is dictate?
- Dictate can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce dictate?
- Dictate is pronounced /ˈdɪkˌteɪt/.
- What is the plural of dictate?
- The plural of dictate is dictates.
Words near dictate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dictate (page history and authors); dictate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dictate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Dictate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dictate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dictate (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dictate2.wav.
Cite this entry: “dictate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dictate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.