diction

diction

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dictiō, dictiōnis, from dictus, past participle of dicere (“to speak”), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show, point out”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪkʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -ɪkʃən

Noun

diction (countable and uncountable, plural dictions)

1. Choice and use of words, especially with regard to effective communication.
2. The effectiveness and degree of clarity of word choice and expression.

   His poor diction meant that most of the audience didn't really understand the key points of the presentation.

3. (theater) Enunciation, pronunciation.

Related terms

• dictate
• dictionary

Translations

clarity of word choice

Bulgarian: ди́кция (bg) f (díkcija) Catalan: dicció f Chinese: Mandarin: 吐字 (zh) (tǔzì) Czech: dikce (cs) f, způsob vyjadřování Dutch: dictie (nl) f Estonian: väljendusviis, sõnastus Finnish: sananvalinta, lausuntatapa, kirjoitustapa, diktio (fi) French: diction (fr) f German: Ausdrucksweise (de) f, Diktion (de) f Greek: Ancient: λέξις f (léxis) Hebrew: דיקציה‎ f (diqtzia) Hungarian: előadásmód (hu) Ido: diciono (io) Indonesian: diksi (id) Irish: briathraíocht f Italian: dizione (it) f Japanese: 言い回し (ja) (いいまわし, iimawashi), ディクション (dikushon) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: gotin (ku) f, derbirîn (ku) Latin: dictio, eloquium Persian: گویه‎ (guye), بیان‎ (fa) (bayân) Polish: dykcja (pl) f Portuguese: dicção (pt) f Russian: ди́кция (ru) f (díkcija) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: дѝкција f Roman: dìkcija (sh) f Spanish: dicción (es) f Turkish: söyleyim

See also

• enunciation

References

• diction at OneLook Dictionary Search
• diction in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

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French

Etymology

From Latin dictiō, dictiōnis, from dictus, past participle of dicere (“to speak”), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show, point out”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dik.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

diction f (plural dictions)

1. diction (clarity of word choice)

Further reading

• “diction”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.