Library / English Dictionary

DICTATE

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A guiding principle

Example:

the dictates of reason

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("dictate" is a kind of...):

principle (a basic truth or law or assumption)

Derivation:

dictate (issue commands or orders for)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An authoritative rule

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("dictate" is a kind of...):

prescript; rule (prescribed guide for conduct or action)

Derivation:

dictate (issue commands or orders for)

dictate (rule as a dictator)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Say out loud for the purpose of recording

Example:

He dictated a report to his secretary

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "dictate" is one way to...):

read (look at, interpret, and say out loud something that is written or printed)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

dictation (matter that has been dictated and transcribed; a dictated passage)

dictation (speech intended for reproduction in writing)

dictator (a speaker who dictates to a secretary or a recording machine)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Issue commands or orders for

Synonyms:

dictate; order; prescribe

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "dictate" is one way to...):

bring down; impose; inflict; visit (impose something unpleasant)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dictate"):

mandate (make mandatory)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s to somebody

Derivation:

dictate (a guiding principle)

dictate (an authoritative rule)

dictation (an authoritative direction or instruction to do something)

dictator (a person who behaves in a tyrannical manner)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Rule as a dictator

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "dictate" is one way to...):

govern; rule (exercise authority over; as of nations)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dictate"):

grind down; tyrannise; tyrannize (rule a country as a tyrant)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

dictate (an authoritative rule)

dictation (an authoritative direction or instruction to do something)

dictator (a ruler who is unconstrained by law)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The currents around Antarctica generally dictate the path that the icebergs follow.

(Massive Iceberg Breaks Off from Antarctica, NASA)

Anyone who's taken a biology class knows that a gene's sequence precisely dictates the order of amino acids that must be linked together to make a protein.

(Genes Can be Read in Different Ways, NIH, US)

Many more genes play a vital role in dictating the success of cancer immunotherapies.

(A new study identifies essential genes for cancer immunotherapy, National Institutes of Health)

He much regretted that any personal bias should have been read into his remarks, which were entirely dictated by his desire for scientific truth.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A thousand and a thousand thanks for all the kindness you have ever shewn me, and ten thousand for the attentions your heart will dictate towards her.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I cannot be dictated to by a watch.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Marianne assented most feelingly to the remark; and her mother was led by it to an enumeration of Colonel Brandon's injuries and merits, warm as friendship and design could unitedly dictate.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Since the idea had been started in the very quarter which ought to dictate, he had no scruple, he said, in confessing his judgement to be entirely on that side.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Strong wind, earthquake-shock, and fire may pass by: but I shall follow the guiding of that still small voice which interprets the dictates of conscience.'

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Some of those moons formed alongside their planets and never went anywhere; others were captured later, then locked into orbits dictated by their planets.

(NASA Finds Neptune Moons Locked in 'Dance of Avoidance', NASA)