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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

diction.

Choice and use of words, especially with regard to effective communication; the effectiveness and degree of clarity of word choice and expression.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈdɪk.ʃən/
  1. Choice and use of words, especially with regard to effective communication; the effectiveness and degree of clarity of word choice and expression.

    countable · uncountable
    the identification of the poetic impulse with sonorous diction
    His poor diction meant that most of the audience didn't really understand the key points of the presentation.
  2. Enunciation, pronunciation, or both.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From late Middle English diccion (“something said; a word or phrase”) (an obsolete sense in Modern English), borrowed directly from Latin dictiō (“a saying, speaking, uttering”) or from Old French dicïon (“word”) (Anglo-Norman dictyoun), from Late Latin dictiō (“word”), both from dīcō (“to say, to talk”) + -tiō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show, to point out”). The modern senses of “choice and use of words” and “clarity of word choice” were likely influenced by additional senses of dictiō.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.