ditto

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English[edit]

WOTD – 9 June 2007

Etymology[edit]

First attested in 1625. From regional Italian ditto, variant of detto, past participle of dire (“to say”), from Latin dīcō (“I say, I speak”). Not related to Italian dito (“finger”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

ditto (plural dittos or dittoes)

  1. That which was stated before, the aforesaid, the above, the same, likewise.
    • Charles Dickens
      A spacious table in the centre, and a variety of smaller dittos in the corners.
    • Hudson (MA) MetroWest Daily News, “New 'Indiana' film whips up plenty of thrills”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
      The opening shot of "Crystal Skull" shows the playful side of director Steven Spielberg, who seems to have a weak spot for cute animals. See "AI Artificial Intelligence" for Exhibit A. Ditto for executive producer George Lucas. See "Return of the Jedi" for Exhibit B.
    • 2009 July 3, “Andy Murray: easy to admire, but can we learn to love him?”, in Times Online:
      He has created for himself a honed, primed-for-victory body and is working hard on a ditto mind.
  2. (informal) A duplicate or copy of a document, particularly one created by a spirit duplicator.
    Please run off twenty-four dittos of this assignment, for my students.
  3. A copy; an imitation.
    • 1991, N. Romano-Benner, “Convoking the muses of Cuenca”, in Americas, volume 43, number 1, page 6:
      "You've got to look good to feel good," she announces, a ditto of television slogans.
    • 2003, “Argenta appears unfazed”, in Herald & Review:
      Last year, Argenta-Oreana blanked the Chiefs 23-0 in a second-round game Dee-Mack coach Jim McDonald said was "pretty much a ditto" of what transpired Saturday.
    • 2009, “Brunswick school hopes to be model for uniforms”, in Myrtle Beach Sun News:
      The intent of the policy, she said, is "not to put everybody in a ditto environment," where all are expected to look and act exactly like all others.
  4. A symbol, represented by two apostrophes, inverted commas, or quotation marks (" "), when indicating that the item preceding is to be repeated.

Synonyms[edit]

  • (symbol): ditto mark, do (abbreviation)

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adverb[edit]

ditto (comparative more ditto, superlative most ditto)

  1. As said before, likewise.

Translations[edit]

likewise — see likewise

Verb[edit]

ditto (third-person singular simple present dittos, present participle dittoing, simple past and past participle dittoed)

  1. (transitive) To repeat the aforesaid, the earlier action etc.
    • 1989, K. K. N. Kurup, Agrarian struggles in Kerala
      The Communists believed that Prakasam, the Prime Minister, never tried to check the bureaucracy but dittoed every action of the corrupt officials and police.

Synonyms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Interjection[edit]

ditto

  1. Used to show agreement with what another person has said, or to indicate that what they have said equally applies to the person being addressed.

Derived terms[edit]

Portuguese[edit]

Noun[edit]

ditto m (plural dittos)

  1. Obsolete spelling of dito

Adjective[edit]

ditto m (feminine singular ditta, masculine plural dittos, feminine plural dittas, comparable)

  1. Obsolete spelling of dito

Verb[edit]

ditto

  1. Obsolete spelling of dito
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