Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use dictate in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Dictate means an order or command. Example: “I must obey the dictates of my conscience.”

Examples of dictate by meaning

nounAn order or command.

  • I must obey the dictates of my conscience.

verbTo 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

verbTo 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.

verbTo determine or decisively affect.

  • Geology dictates the approximate location of the tunnel.1961 December, “The Channel Tunnel—a realistic proposal”, in Trains Illustrated, page 723
  • The design was dictated by the materials.1977 August 20, David Holland, quoting Tony Bosco, “Tony Bosco”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 7, page 19

More sentences with dictate

  • The driver engages the follower intermittently, as dictated by the solenoid.From the entry driver
  • Adyghe Khabze dictates that guests must be treated with the utmost respect and hospitality.From the entry Adyghe Khabze
  • Puritan austerity was so tempered by Dutch indifference, that mercy itself could not have dictated a milder system.From the entry temper
  • Good netiquette dictates that one warn of spoilers before discussing them, so that readers who wish to do so may experience the surprises for themselves.From the entry spoiler
  • Death by committee, trying to slam your dictates into another person's face.2020 October 11, Barbara Ellen, “John Lydon: 'Don't become entrenched in one opinion and get stuck there for ever'”, in The Observer…. From the entry I'll bite
  • SSD dictates that the member of one group cannot be the member of another group.2016, Michael Gregg, CISSP Exam Cram, →ISBN. From the entry SSD
  • He did this because he was thinking of providing lines to dictate during a repetitorium.2015, Robert R. Clewis, Reading Kant's Lectures, →ISBN, page 171. From the entry repetitorium
  • Case sensitivity dictates a precision and strictness that good engineering requires.2015 March 30, cc, “Snit, when you say cola trusts your views on 'pretty much any topic'...”, in comp.os.linux.advocacy (Usenet), archived…. From the entry 'mato
  • The answer is that arrangement was dictated by the PET keyboard design, a hardware-driven decision.2014, Nick Montfort et al., 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 225. From the entry pet
  • Such paintings are inherently moody, and Elliott likes that-even as he carefully avoids dictating a specific mood.2007 February, Bob Bahr, “Tapestries in Oil”, in American Artist, volume 71, number 773, page 45. From the entry doom
  • Henry James, after he suffered an attack of writer's cramp, began to dictate to a typist.2007 Nov. 4, John Updike, "On Literary Biography" (excerpt from Due Considerations), New York Times (retrieved 9 Dec 2011). From the entry writer's cramp
  • The needs of our lumbering bucketheads dictated we go in close.2007, Michael Z. Williamson, The Weapon, →ISBN, page 257. From the entry buckethead
  • The differences between radio and television also dictate what kind of information the producer wants to use.2005, Brad Schultz, Broadcast News Producing, page 127. From the entry news wheel
  • “And what do you think, Platon?” he encouraged me, and I replied as my thoughts dictated.2003, John H. Kunkel, “Aster”, in The Winged Soul: Plato’s Autobiography, Philadelphia, Pa.: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 64. From the entry Platon
  • These conversations seemed dictated to him by something outside of him.1997, Lyn Andrews, Contemporary Authors Autobiographical Series, volume 28, page 60. From the entry stuck record
  • His undercover work, by necessity, dictated that he assume various roles and disguises.1981 April, Matt Braun, chapter 4, in Tombstone (Luke Starbuck; 3), New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 41. From the entry smoothtalker
  • To some degree the surface of the runway will dictate the type of shoe.1969, Virginia Parker, Robert [Emmett] Kennedy, Track and Field for Girls and Women (Saunders Physical Activities Series), Philadelphia…. From the entry runway
  • All my actions since then have been dictated automatically to my subconscious by this horrible osmotic experience.1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, chapter 11, in On the Road, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC, part 3. From the entry osmotic
  • There is no economic necessitousness that would dictate one or the other use.1946, Walter Firey, “Ecological Considerations in Planning for Rurban Fringes”, in American Sociological Review, volume 11, number 4, page…. From the entry necessitousness
  • Always, you see, in accordance with the dictates of some great natural law.1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Countess Explains”, in The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company…. From the entry faugh
  • Atterbury, with his priceless polished poll, busy in the main office room dictating letters..1908, O. Henry, A Tempered Wind. From the entry poll
  • But it's invariably copied over and any change is fitted in, unless a major passenger timetable change dictates a thorough review.2023 September 6, Anthony Lambert, “Train paths: more space for freight?”, in RAIL, number 991, page 32. From the entry blank sheet
  • Fascine knives were widely issued to engineers, pioneers and foot-artillerymen; smaller numbers were issued to other arms as circumstances dictated.2021, Bill Harriman, “Development: Blades for Firearms”, in Martin Pegler, editor, The Bayonet (Weapon; 78), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Osprey…. From the entry fascine knife
  • We'd be the best 'teenologists.' With this book, we could dictate our own terms on appropriate adolescent etiquette.2018, Christopher Phillips, A Child at Heart. From the entry teenologist
  • Painstakingly negotiated agreements governed many aspects of international relations; the doctrine of pacta sunt servanda dictated that those agreements be obeyed.2015, Susan Pedersen, ‘At least we worried’, London Review of Books, volume 37, number 12. From the entry pacta sunt servanda
  • To the west, sedimentation is dictated by the Mississippi River and the input of siliciclastics into the NE GoM.2015 July 15, “Sedimentation Pulse in the NE Gulf of Mexico following the 2010 DWH Blowout”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry siliciclastics
  • This arrangement gives the best view of the fire, but space considerations may dictate building seating along the fireplace wall instead.2000, Judith Knuth, edited by Paula Marshall, Fireplace Decorating & Planning Ideas, Des Moines, Iowa: Better Homes and Gardens Books…. From the entry inglenook
  • In fact, as tradition dictates, the two opposing sides are today still kept at a distance equal to two swordlengths.1999, Stevie Ray, Stevie Ray’s Medium-Sized Book of Comedy: What We Laugh At…and Why, Punchline Publications, →ISBN, page 104. From the entry swordlength
  • The free will dictates which of these two sides will have its way in our life, at every given moment.”1997, John Peniel, chapter 10, in The Children Of The Law Of One & The Lost Teachings Of Atlantis, page 127. From the entry selfish
  • Competitive activity often dictates more message units.1996, William F. Arens, Jack J. Whidden, Contemporary Advertising, page 239. From the entry message unit
  • Motorcycles are supposed to fit people, not bend the rider into a shape dictated by the whim of fashion.1979 February, “Yamaha XS100 Special: Cycle World Tests: With Flash or Without, the Eleven is Still Big, Strong and Stable”, in Allan…. From the entry sit-up-and-beg
  • Butter vulnerability, though than the threat of businesslessness as dictated by the invention of an environmental engineer from the Electric Boat.1971, Journal of the American Water Works Association, volume 63, page 540. From the entry businesslessness
  • In this case practicality dictated a bra, and Mary stood at the desk feeling herself flushing with disapproval.1964, Philip K. Dick, “FOUR”, in Clans of the Alphane Moon, United States: Ace Books, →OCLC; republished London: HarperCollinsPublishers…. From the entry bra

Meaning of dictate

  1. noun An order or command.
  2. verb To order, command, control.
  3. verb To speak in order for someone to write down the words.

Full definition of dictate

Questions about dictate in a sentence

How do you use dictate in a sentence?
Dictate is used as a noun and verb. For example: “I must obey the dictates of my conscience.”
What is a short sentence with dictate?
“Competitive activity often dictates more message units.”
What does dictate mean?
Dictate means an order or command.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dictate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use dictate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/dictate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.