Sample Sentences for
dictate
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

dictate as in:  Hitler dictated that...

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    By the time I was in high school, my parents seldom dictated to me, but they were very persuasive.
    dictated = issued commands or orders
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    And once we reach the city, my stylist will dictate my look for the opening ceremonies tonight anyway.  (source)
    dictate = control or command
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    Dumbledore's refusal to use Voldemort's chosen name was a refusal to allow Voldemort to dictate the terms of the meeting, and Harry could tell that Voldemort took it as such.  (source)
    dictate = command or control
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Show 10 more with 8 word variations
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    We need a Julius Caesar, except that he made himself dictator, and died for it.  (source)
    dictator = someone who rules a country with total, individual, political power
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    Jack ran his bus in dictatorial fashion.†  (source)
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    Zia even wanted to dictate how we should pray, and set up salat, or prayer committees, in every district, even in our remote village, and appointed 100,000 prayer inspectors.  (source)
    dictate = command
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    Eighty percent have decided to obey the dictates of their conscience, but the penalty will be severe.  (source)
    dictates = commands
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    And these are the Lawes of that Divine Worship, which naturall Reason dictateth to private men.†  (source)
    standard suffix: Today, the suffix "-th" is replaced by "-s", so that where they said "She dictateth" in older English, today we say "She dictates."
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    It's just that men like Father don't like to be dictated to.  (source)
    dictated = commanded
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    They were free, as Colonel Cathcart was free, to force their men to fly sixty missions if they chose, and they were free, as Yossarian had been free, to stand in formation naked if they wanted to, although General Dreedle's granite jaw swung open at the sight and he went striding dictatorially right down the line to make certain that there really was a man wearing nothing but moccasins waiting at attention in ranks to receive a medal from him.†  (source)
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    He was used to dictating to grown men.  (source)
    dictating = issuing commands
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    Dictator or not, she's not gonna make me dance.†  (source)
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    He is evidently the Sir Oracle of them, and I should think must have been in his time a most dictatorial person.†  (source)
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dictate as in:  reason dictates

•
Reason dictates that we change the policy.
dictates = determines (controls what will happen)
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    Public outrage dictates that the law be changed.
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    Faction customs dictate even idle behavior and supersede individual preference.  (source)
    dictate = control
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    He couldn't bear it that in some way I had the power to dictate his future, that I had somehow become Mother again.  (source)
    dictate = determine or control what will happen
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Show 10 more with 4 word variations
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    Sometimes he pursued the call into the forest, looking for it as though it were a tangible thing, barking softly or defiantly, as the mood might dictate.  (source)
    dictate = determine
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    Courtesy dictates that we offer fellow wizards the opportunity of denying us entry.  (source)
    dictates = requires
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    These feelings dictated my answer to my father.  (source)
    dictated = determined or controlled
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    …and long-furred; but behind him were the shades of all manner of dogs, half-wolves and wild wolves, urgent and prompting, tasting the savor of the meat he ate, thirsting for the water he drank, scenting the wind with him, listening with him and telling him the sounds made by the wild life in the forest, dictating his moods, directing his actions, lying down to sleep with him when he lay down, and dreaming with him and beyond him and becoming themselves the stuff of his dreams.  (source)
    dictating = determining
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    Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;  (source)
    dictate = require
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    The heart dictates as well as feels.  (source)
    dictates = determines or controls what will happen
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    As long as he had strength in him, his duty dictated that he return to the other world and search for the princess.  (source)
    dictated = determined or required
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    And the first story I covered I had to dictate over the telephone to one of those beastly girls.†  (source)
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    Buddhist protocol dictates that travelers always pass mani walls on the left.  (source)
    dictates = requires
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    I cannot be dictated to by a watch.  (source)
    dictated = controlled
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dictate as in:  dictate a letter

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She dictated a letter to her secretary.
dictated = said out loud for the purpose of recording

(in this case, the implication is that the secretary is writing down what is said and will type it up later as a letter to send)
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    She dictated a text message to her phone.
    dictated = said out loud for the purpose of recording
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    Apart from very short notes, it was usual to dictate everything into the speak-write which was of course impossible for his present purpose.  (source)
    dictate = say out loud for the purpose of recording
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    Atticus was speaking easily, with the kind of detachment he used when he dictated a letter.  (source)
    dictated = said out loud for the purpose of recording
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Show 10 more with 4 word variations
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    Finally, a letter arrived, composed by Harvey and dictated to a nurse from his hospital bed.  (source)
    dictated = said out loud and written by another
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    Then Mr. van Daan came in to do some dictating.  (source)
    dictating = talk aloud for the purpose of recording in writing
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    We had reading and geography and Canadian history and dictation today.  (source)
    dictation = writing what someone else says aloud
    standard suffix: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.
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    I owe this progress report to Burt who had the bright idea that I could dictate this on a transistor tape recorder and have a public stenographer in Chicago type it up.  (source)
    dictate = talking aloud for the purpose of recording
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    Joe made notes as Ed dictated.  (source)
    dictated = said out loud (for another to write notes)
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    He is on record now, and is really dictating to Cheever, who writes.  (source)
    dictating = talking so that someone else can write what is said
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    She wrote at his dictation.  (source)
    dictation = saying out loud for the purpose of recording
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    Vera hesitated a minute, then she said: "You've admitted, you know, that you don't hold human life particularly sacred, but all the same I can't see you as-as the man who dictated that gramophone record."  (source)
    dictated = said out loud for the purpose of recording
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    …to weary myself with imagining some fit parentage for him; and, repeating my waking meditations, I tracked his existence over again, with grim variations; at last, picturing his death and funeral: of which, all I can remember is, being exceedingly vexed at having the task of dictating an inscription for his monument, and consulting the sexton about it; and, as he had no surname, and we could not tell his age, we were obliged to content ourselves with the single word, 'Heathcliff.'  (source)
    dictating = saying out loud for the purpose of recording
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    I could take only the most rudimentary dictation in the field, but Titch was pleased with my progress.†  (source)
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