ditto
UK/ˈdɪtəʊ//ˈdɪtoʊ/
ditto noun: that which was stated before, the aforesaid, the above, the same, likewise.
Noun
ditto (plural dittos or dittoes)
- That which was stated before, the aforesaid, the above, the same, likewise.
- [...] they entered a dismal-looking parlour, whose brick-red walls and ditto curtains were scantily lighted by a single lamp, though it was of the last new patent—[…]1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 127
- […]a spacious table in the centre, and a variety of smaller dittos in the corners:[…]1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Comprising a Brief Description of the Company at the Peacock Assembled; and a Tale Told by a Bagman”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club...
- The ditto mark, 〃; a symbol, represented by two apostrophes, inverted commas, or quotation marks (" "), indicating that the item preceding is to be repeated.
- Synonyms:
- ditto mark, ditto sign, do., do
- A suit of clothes of the same color throughout.
- A copy made by (run off by) a ditto machine (especially, a worksheet thus reproduced).
- Please run off twenty-four dittos of this assignment for my students.
- Mr. Zappadia gave each student a ditto of a black-and-white cow.2019, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Jonathan Cape, page 227
- A copy; an imitation.
- "You've got to look good to feel good," she announces, a ditto of television slogans.1991, N. Romano-Benner with S. Murphy, “Convoking the muses of Cuenca”, in Americas, volume 43, number 1, page 6
- Last year, Argenta-Oreana blanked the Chiefs 23-0 in a second-round game Dee-Mack coach Jim McDonald said was "pretty much a ditto" of what transpired Saturday.2003 November 9, “Argenta appears unfazed”, in Herald & Review
Adverb
ditto (not comparable)
- As said before, likewise.
- The inflationary effect of injecting $1 billion into the economy could be dire; ditto the impact on the tumbling bolivar of treating foreign reserves as if they were the government's piggy-bank.2004 January 15, “Smash and grab”, in The Economist
- Some of the players were concerned about what the future held for them – given that one of the measures involved Chelsea not being able to operate in the transfer market or offer new contracts. Ditto many members of staff.March 11 2022, David Hytner, “Chelsea are in crisis but there is no will to leave club on their knees”, in The Guardian
Verb
ditto (third-person singular simple present dittos, present participle dittoing, simple past and past participle dittoed)
- To repeat the aforesaid, the earlier action etc.
- The Communists believed that Prakasam, the Prime Minister, never tried to check the bureaucracy but dittoed every action of the corrupt officials and police.1989, K. K. N. Kurup, Agrarian struggles in Kerala
- To make a copy using a ditto machine.
- But they were all purple, Dittoed—worn, torn, stained with coffee.1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 3, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 55
- I was going to join a commune of my friends. I sort of issued a declaration of independence which I dittoed up and put in everybody's mail box in the department.1976 April 26, Jil Clark, Julia Penelope, Susan Wolfe, “The Politics of Language”, in Gay Community News, page 8
Interjection
ditto
- Used as an expression of agreement with what another person has said, or to indicate that what they have said equally applies to the person being addressed.
- I'm really busy today! —Ditto!
- "Besides, if I'm only a sort of thing in his dream, what are you, I should like to know?" "Ditto," said Tweedledum. "Ditto, ditto!" cried Tweedledee.1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Tweedledum and Tweedledee”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and...
ditto meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Malayalam
ditto in Tamil
- முன் குறிப்பிட்ட, மேற்சொன்னதே, மேற்படி
ditto in Marathi
- ditto
- तंतोतंत tantotanta
ditto in Urdu
- ایضاً, مکرر, ویسا ہی, وہی
ditto in Malayalam
- മേൽപ്പറഞ്ഞത്, തഥൈവ, പൂർവ്വോക്തം, മേല്പടി, നേരത്തെ പറഞ്ഞത്
More languagesFewer languages
- ditto in Kannada
- ಹಿಂದೆ ಹೇಳಿದಂತೆ, ಮೇಲ್ಕಂಡಂತೆ, ಮೇಲೆ ಹೇಳಿದಂತೆ, ಅದೇ
- ditto in Vietnamese
- như trên, nt
Examples of ditto in a sentence
- Well say he's got the constitution of a dinosaur, recuperative powers ditto.1967, Star Trek, The Alternative Factor, season 1, episode 27, DeForest Kelley (actor):
- Ditto for executive producer George Lucas.2008 May 22, “New 'Indiana' film whips up plenty of thrills”, in Hudson (MA) MetroWest Daily News:
- He has created for himself a honed, primed-for-victory body and is working hard on a ditto mind.2009 July 3, “Andy Murray: easy to admire, but can we learn to love him?”, in Times Online:
- The intent of the policy, she said, is "not to put everybody in a ditto environment," where all are expected to look and act exactly like all others.2009 May 6, “Brunswick school hopes to be model for uniforms”, in Myrtle Beach Sun News:
Synonyms of ditto
Forms of ditto
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | dittos |
| plural | dittoes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | dittos |
| present participle | dittoing |
| past participle | dittoed |
| past | dittoed |
Origin of ditto
First attested in 1625. From regional Italian ditto, variant of detto, past participle of dire (“to say”), from Latin dīcō (“to say, to speak”). Not related to English dittography. The specific meaning of making copies of paper comes from ditto machine, a genericization from the brand name of a spirit duplicator.
Words formed from ditto
Phrases with ditto
Questions about ditto
- What does ditto mean?
- Ditto means that which was stated before, the aforesaid, the above, the same, likewise.
- What is ditto in Tamil?
- Ditto in Tamil is முன் குறிப்பிட்ட, மேற்சொன்னதே, மேற்படி. See Ditto meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use ditto in a sentence?
- Well say he's got the constitution of a dinosaur, recuperative powers ditto.
- What part of speech is ditto?
- Ditto can be a noun, an adverb, a verb or an interjection.
- How do you pronounce ditto?
- Ditto is pronounced /ˈdɪtəʊ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of ditto?
- The plural of ditto is dittos.
Words near ditto in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ditto (page history and authors); ditto (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); तंतोतंत (Marathi) (page history and authors); ditto (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ditto (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ditto (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: en-us-ditto.ogg, en-au-ditto.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ditto.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ditto. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.