Syn. — Command; injunction; direction suggestion; impulse; admonition.
Dictation
(Dic*ta"tion) n. [L. dictatio.]
1. The act of dictating; the act or practice of prescribing; also that which is dictated.
It affords security against the dictation of laws.
Paley. 2. The speaking to, or the giving orders to, in an overbearing manner; authoritative utterance; as, his
habit, even with friends, was that of dictation.
Dictator
(Dic*ta"tor) n. [L.]
1. One who dictates; one who prescribes rules and maxims authoritatively for the direction of others.
Locke.
2. One invested with absolute authority; especially, a magistrate created in times of exigence and distress,
and invested with unlimited power.
Invested with the authority of a dictator, nay, of a pope, over our language.
Macaulay. Dictatorial
(Dic`ta*to"ri*al) a. [Cf. F. dictatorial.]
1. Pertaining or suited to a dictator; absolute.
Military powers quite dictatorial.
W. Irving. 2. Characteristic of a dictator; imperious; dogmatical; overbearing; as, a dictatorial tone or manner.
— Dic`ta*to"ri*al*ly, adv. — Dic`ta*to"ri*al*ness, n.
Dictatorian
(Dic`ta*to"ri*an) a. Dictatorial. [Obs.]
Dictatorship
(Dic*ta"tor*ship) n. The office, or the term of office, of a dictator; hence, absolute power.
Dictatory
(Dic"ta*to*ry) a. [L. dictatorius.] Dogmatical; overbearing; dictatorial. Milton.
Dictatress
(Dic*ta"tress) n. A woman who dictates or commands.
Earth's chief dictatress, ocean's mighty queen.
Byron. Dictatrix
(Dic*ta"trix) n. [L.] A dictatress.
Dictature
(Dic*ta"ture) n. [L. dictatura: cf. F. dictature.] Office of a dictator; dictatorship. [R.] Bacon.
Diction
(Dic"tion) n. [L. dicto a saying, a word, fr. dicere, dictum, to say; akin to dicare to proclaim,
and to E. teach, token: cf. F. diction. See Teach, and cf. Benison, Dedicate, Index, Judge, Preach,
Vengeance.] Choice of words for the expression of ideas; the construction, disposition, and application
of words in discourse, with regard to clearness, accuracy, variety, etc.; mode of expression; language; as,
the diction of Chaucer's poems.
His diction blazes up into a sudden explosion of prophetic grandeur.
De Quincey. Syn. — Diction, Style, Phraseology. Style relates both to language and thought; diction, to language
only; phraseology, to the mechanical structure of sentences, or the mode in which they are phrased.
The style of Burke was enriched with all the higher graces of composition; his diction was varied and
copious; his phraseology, at times, was careless and cumbersome. "Diction is a general term applicable
