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dictate
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

dictate as in:  Hitler dictated that...

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    By the time I was in high school, my parents seldom dictated to me, but they were very persuasive.
    dictated = issued commands or orders
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    Prisoners don't usually dictate their own conditions.  (source)
    dictate = control or command
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    And once we reach the city, my stylist will dictate my look for the opening ceremonies tonight anyway.  (source)
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Show 10 more with 8 word variations
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    We need a Julius Caesar, except that he made himself dictator, and died for it.  (source)
    dictator = someone who rules a country with total, individual, political power
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    But it was to Father the crowning touch in Mrs. Gandhi's dictatorial takeover of the nation.†  (source)
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    Zia even wanted to dictate how we should pray, and set up salat, or prayer committees, in every district, even in our remote village, and appointed 100,000 prayer inspectors.  (source)
    dictate = command
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    I was subject to the dictates of my mind, which gave me the maneuverability of a strait jacket.  (source)
    dictates = commands
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    And these are the Lawes of that Divine Worship, which naturall Reason dictateth to private men.†  (source)
    dictateth = issues commands or orders
    standard suffix: Today, the suffix "-th" is replaced by "-s", so that where they said "She dictateth" in older English, today we say "She dictates."
  • •
    It's just that men like Father don't like to be dictated to.  (source)
    dictated = commanded
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    He had intentionally broken the law and dictatorially thwarted the will of Congress!†  (source)
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    He was used to dictating to grown men.  (source)
    dictating = issuing commands
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    I like to believe I am a benevolent dictator, but you can make that judgment for yourselves.†  (source)
    dictator = someone who issue commands or orders -- especially someone who rules a country and maintains power through force
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    Tiny dictatorial lists.†  (source)
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dictate as in:  reason dictates

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Reason dictates that we change the policy.
dictates = determines (controls what will happen)
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    Public outrage dictates that the law be changed.
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    Faction customs dictate even idle behavior and supersede individual preference.  (source)
    dictate = control
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    The heart dictates as well as feels.  (source)
    dictates = determines or controls what will happen
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Show 10 more with 4 word variations
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    He couldn't bear it that in some way I had the power to dictate his future, that I had somehow become Mother again.  (source)
    dictate = determine or control what will happen
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    Whether they are destroyed individually or in groups, or however it is done, with mass bombing, poisonous smoke, poisons, drowning, decapitation, or what, dispose of them as the situation dictates ….  (source)
    dictates = determines or controls
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    As long as he had strength in him, his duty dictated that he return to the other world and search for the princess.  (source)
    dictated = determined or required
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    …and long-furred; but behind him were the shades of all manner of dogs, half-wolves and wild wolves, urgent and prompting, tasting the savor of the meat he ate, thirsting for the water he drank, scenting the wind with him, listening with him and telling him the sounds made by the wild life in the forest, dictating his moods, directing his actions, lying down to sleep with him when he lay down, and dreaming with him and beyond him and becoming themselves the stuff of his dreams.  (source)
    dictating = determining
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    Sometimes he pursued the call into the forest, looking for it as though it were a tangible thing, barking softly or defiantly, as the mood might dictate.  (source)
    dictate = determine
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    Courtesy dictates that we offer fellow wizards the opportunity of denying us entry.  (source)
    dictates = requires
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    These feelings dictated my answer to my father.  (source)
    dictated = determined or controlled
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    Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;  (source)
    dictate = require
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    Matter changes hands, atoms flow in and out, molecules pivot, proteins stitch together, mitochondria send out their oxidative dictates; we begin as a microscopic electrical swarm.  (source)
    dictates = instructions or commands
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    I cannot be dictated to by a watch.  (source)
    dictated = controlled
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dictate as in:  dictate a letter

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She dictated a letter to her secretary.
dictated = said out loud for the purpose of recording

(in this case, the implication is that the secretary is writing down what is said and will type it up later as a letter to send)
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    She dictated a text message to her phone.
    dictated = said out loud for the purpose of recording
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    Finally, a letter arrived, composed by Harvey and dictated to a nurse from his hospital bed.  (source)
    dictated = said out loud and written by another
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    Joe made notes as Ed dictated.  (source)
    dictated = said out loud (for another to write notes)
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Show 10 more with 4 word variations
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    Atticus was speaking easily, with the kind of detachment he used when he dictated a letter.  (source)
    dictated = said out loud for the purpose of recording
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    We had reading and geography and Canadian history and dictation today.  (source)
    dictation = writing what someone else says aloud
    standard suffix: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.
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    Then Mr. van Daan came in to do some dictating.  (source)
    dictating = talk aloud for the purpose of recording in writing
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    Apart from very short notes, it was usual to dictate everything into the speak-write which was of course impossible for his present purpose.  (source)
    dictate = say out loud for the purpose of recording
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    Peter dictated as follows:  (source)
    dictated = said out loud for the purpose of recording
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    She wrote at his dictation.  (source)
    dictation = saying out loud for the purpose of recording
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    He is on record now, and is really dictating to Cheever, who writes.  (source)
    dictating = talking so that someone else can write what is said
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    I owe this progress report to Burt who had the bright idea that I could dictate this on a transistor tape recorder and have a public stenographer in Chicago type it up.  (source)
    dictate = talking aloud for the purpose of recording
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    Vera hesitated a minute, then she said: "You've admitted, you know, that you don't hold human life particularly sacred, but all the same I can't see you as-as the man who dictated that gramophone record."  (source)
    dictated = said out loud for the purpose of recording
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    He leaned forward in his chair as though he were listening but no matter what we said—a moth flew into Miss Campbell's ear during dictation, Donald Harzbecker has been grounded for life—his response was the same.†  (source)
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