diction

English

Etymology

Borrowing 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.

Related terms

• dictate
• dictionary

Translations

clarity of word choice

• Bulgarian: дикция (bg) f (díkcija)
• Catalan: dicció f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 吐字 (zh) (tǔzì)

• Dutch: dictie (nl) f
• Estonian: väljendusviis, sõnastus
• Finnish: sananvalinta, lausuntatapa, kirjoitustapa, diktio (fi)
• French: diction (fr) f
• German: Ausdrucksweise (de) f, Diktion (de) f
• 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 (いいまわし, iimawashi), ディクション (dikushon)
• 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

References

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