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.

Related terms

• dictate
• dictionary

Translations

clarity of word choice

• Bulgarian: ди́кция (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
• Greek:

  Ancient: λέξις f (léxis)

• Hebrew: דיקציה‎ f (diqtzia)
• Hungarian: előadásmód (hu)
• Ido: diciono (io)
• Indonesian: diksi (id)

• Interlingue: diction
• 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

References

• diction at OneLook Dictionary Search
• diction in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 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 (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).