dictate

Dictate is a verb with several closely related meanings. The primary sense is to utter words aloud for another person to write down or type, as when a speaker dictates a letter to a secretary. A secondary sense is to command, prescribe, or impose terms or rules with authority, as a ruler or executive might dictate policy. The word can also function as a noun in phrases such as the dictates of the party or the dictate of someone’s authority. A related noun is dictation, the act or process of speaking so that someone else can record it.

Etymology and related forms: Dictate derives from Middle French dicter, from Latin dictare, a frequentative form of dicere “to say.” The Latin root is also seen in dictator and dictatorship, which connect to the sense of issuing authoritative commands.

Usage and context: In modern English, dictate often appears in business, legal, and medical contexts: a manager may dictate a memo, a physician may dictate a report, or a client may dictate terms. In transcription, dictation refers to the process of reproducing spoken language as text. The phrase “to be dictated to” can indicate that content or decisions are controlled by someone else, emphasizing external direction or constraint.

Technology and transcription: The rise of digital assistants and speech recognition has changed how dictation is performed, enabling both real-time transcription and automated conversion of spoken language into written text, sometimes with editing and formatting by a human proofreader.

See also: dictation, dictatorial, directive, instruction.