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7 dictionary results for: diction
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
dic·tion       [dik-shuhn] Pronunciation Key
–noun
1.style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words: good diction.
2.the accent, inflection, intonation, and speech-sound quality manifested by an individual speaker, usually judged in terms of prevailing standards of acceptability; enunciation.

[Origin: 1400–50; late ME diccion < LL dictiōn- (s. of dictiō) word, L: rhetorical delivery, equiv. to dict(us) said, spoken (ptp. of dīcere) + -iōn- -ion]

dic·tion·al, adjective
dic·tion·al·ly, adverb

1. usage, language. Diction, phraseology, wording refer to the means and the manner of expressing ideas. Diction usually implies a high level of usage; it refers chiefly to the choice of words, their arrangement, and the force, accuracy, and distinction with which they are used: The speaker was distinguished for his excellent diction; poetic diction. Phraseology refers more to the manner of combining the words into related groups, and esp. to the peculiar or distinctive manner in which certain technical, scientific, and professional ideas are expressed: legal phraseology. Wording refers to the exact words or phraseology used to convey thought: the wording of a will.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
dic·tion       (dĭk'shən)  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
  1. Choice and use of words in speech or writing.
  2. Degree of clarity and distinctness of pronunciation in speech or singing; enunciation.


[Middle English diccion, a saying, word, from Old French, from Latin dictiō, dictiōn-, rhetorical delivery, from dictus, past participle of dīcere, to say, speak; see deik- in Indo-European roots.]

dic'tion·al adj., dic'tion·al·ly adv.
Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
diction 
1542, from L.L. dictionem (nom. dictio), from L. "a saying, expression, word," from dic-, stem of dicere "speak, tell, say," related to dicare "proclaim, dedicate," from PIE base *deik- "to point out" (cf. Skt. dic- "point out, show," Gk. deiknynai "to prove," O.H.G. zeigon, Ger. zeigen "to show," O.E. teon "to accuse," tæcan "to teach").

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
diction

noun
1. the articulation of speech regarded from the point of view of its intelligibility to the audience [syn: enunciation
2. the manner in which something is expressed in words; "use concise military verbiage"- G.S.Patton [syn: wording

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
diction

The choice of words. Diction is effective when words are appropriate to an audience. A man might refer to his car as his “wheels” in casual conversation with a friend, but if he were writing an essay for a group of economists, he would write, “People base their decision to buy an automobile on the following considerations,” not “People base their decision to buy wheels on the following considerations.”


[Chapter:] Conventions of Written English


Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Diction

Ab"di*cate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Abdicated; p. pr. & vb. n. Abdicating.] [L. abdicatus, p. p. of abdicare; ab + dicare to proclaim, akin to dicere to say. See Diction.]

1. To surrender or relinquish, as sovereign power; to withdraw definitely from filling or exercising, as a high office, station, dignity; as, to abdicate the throne, the crown, the papacy.

Note: The word abdicate was held to mean, in the case of James II., to abandon without a formal surrender.

The cross-bearers abdicated their service. --Gibbon.

2. To renounce; to relinquish; -- said of authority, a trust, duty, right, etc.

He abdicates all right to be his own governor. --Burke.

The understanding abdicates its functions. --Froude.

3. To reject; to cast off. [Obs.] --Bp. Hall.

4. (Civil Law) To disclaim and expel from the family, as a father his child; to disown; to disinherit.

Syn: To give up; quit; vacate; relinquish; forsake; abandon; resign; renounce; desert.

Usage: To Abdicate, Resign. Abdicate commonly expresses the act of a monarch in voluntary and formally yielding up sovereign authority; as, to abdicate the government. Resign is applied to the act of any person, high or low, who gives back an office or trust into the hands of him who conferred it. Thus, a minister resigns, a military officer resigns, a clerk resigns. The expression, "The king resigned his crown," sometimes occurs in our later literature, implying that he held it from his people. -- There are other senses of resign which are not here brought into view.

On-line Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

diction

diction: in CancerWEB's On-line Medical Dictionary

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