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FRENCH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

dire.

to say, to tell (to express through speech)

4 characters2 syllables approx.Français language

Meaning & usage

verb/diʁ//d͡ziʁ/Quebec
  1. to say, to tell (to express through speech)

    transitive
    Dire qu'on fait des cookies, c'est bien, mais il faut ensuite les partager.
  2. to tell (to order, to advise)

    transitive
    Il lui a dit de partir.
  3. to say, to tell (to set out in writing)

    transitive
    Je vous ai dit dans ma dernière lettre que….
    Cet auteur a dit là-dessus d'excellentes choses.
  4. to say (often used in the sense of responding to an objection)

    transitive
    Qu'avez-vous à dire à cela ?
    Que trouvez-vous à dire à cette action ?
  5. to say, to tell of (to celebrate, to sing, to narrate)

    poetic · transitive
    Je dirai vos exploits.
  6. to say, to tell (to deliver, to recite)

    transitive
    Dire sa leçon.
    Dire la messe.
  7. to seem like, to look like

    figuratively · transitive
    On dit de même.
    On dirait de loin une barque; ce n’est peut-être qu’une planche.
  8. to mean, to say, to state (to denote, to signify, to indicate, to mark)

    transitive
    Que veut dire ce retard ?
    Cela veut dire que… Cela ne dit rien.
  9. to say, to tell (used when speaking of actions, of gestures, of looks, etc., that demonstrate someone's thinking)

    figuratively · transitive
    Mes yeux, mes regards vous disent que je vous aime.
    Sa contenance, son trouble, sa confusion disent assez qu'il est coupable.
  10. to call out (to denounce)

    informal · transitive
    Aïe ! J'le dirai !
  11. to say (to express what one thinks, what one feels, what one sees)

    intransitive
  12. to say (to signify, to be used for a word, a phrase, a sentence)

    reflexive
    Ce mot se dit de telle chose.
    Ce proverbe se dit en parlant d'une personne qui….
  13. to say (to claim, to assure that one has a certain quality)

    reflexive
    Il se dit votre parent, votre ami.
    Il se dit au courant de ce service et il n'y connaît rien.
  14. to say to oneself, to think to oneself, to tell oneself, to think (to make this or that reflection, to have this or that thought, to make this or that reasoning within oneself)

    reflexive · transitive
    Je me le disais bien, je me l’étais bien dit.
    Quelque chose me le dit.
  15. to be of interest to, to interest [with à ‘someone’], to be up for, to be interested, to like to, to feel like (to be okay with, to be tempted by)

    informal
    Ça te dit de regarder un film de science-fiction?
    Ça vous dit ?
  16. to sound familiar

    informal
    Ça me dit quelque chose.
    Ça ne me dit rien.
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle French dire, from Old French dire, from Latin dīcō, from Proto-Italic *deikō, from Proto-Indo-European *déyḱeti (“to show, point out”).

noun/diʁ//d͡ziʁ/Quebec
  1. saying (that which is said)

    masculine
  2. belief, opinion

    masculine
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle French dire, from Old French dire, from Latin dīcō, from Proto-Italic *deikō, from Proto-Indo-European *déyḱeti (“to show, point out”).

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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.