diction

noun

dic·​tion ˈdik-shən 

1

a

: vocal expression : enunciation

b

: pronunciation and enunciation of words in singing

2

: choice of words especially with regard to correctness, clearness, or effectiveness

3

obsolete : verbal description

dictional

ˈdik-shnəl 

-shə-nᵊl

adjective

dictionally

ˈdik-shnəl-ē 

-shə-nᵊl-

adverb

Did you know?

When your English teacher complains about some of the words you chose to use in an essay, she's talking about your diction. She may also use the term when commenting on the word choices made by a poet, and why a particular word was the best one possible in a particular line. But the second meaning of diction is just as common, and your English teacher might use that one on you as well, especially when she's asked you to read something aloud and you mumble your way through it.

Synonyms

• articulation
• enunciation

Examples of diction in a Sentence

He has wisely chosen to render almost all the material in what novelists and writers of creative nonfiction like to call "close third person," approximating the diction and consciousness of his characters but retaining the freedom to wander into the bigger picture. —Thomas Mallon, New York Times Book Review, 22 Feb. 2009

No one is better than Didion at using flatness of affect and formality of diction to convey seething anger and disdain. —New Yorker, 8 Oct. 2001

When he sang Anatol in the world premiere of Samuel Barber's Vanessa, in 1958, Gedda's performance received high marks for impeccable diction and enunciation—in that mostly American cast, he was the only principal whose English could be understood. —Patrick J. Smith, Opera News, November 1999

The actor's diction was so poor I could hardly understand what he was saying.

The student's essay was full of careless diction.

Recent Examples on the Web

The couplets exemplify his greatest strengths in tandem: his slick diction and knack for stacking multi-syllabic rhymes together. —Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 3 Apr. 2024

The running gag of that book was applying Victorian diction and prejudices to high-tech things. —Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 6 Feb. 2024

Harmon is less at home in the past; the characters’ diction is more general and less confident, the scenarios more rote. —Sara Holdren, Vulture, 9 Jan. 2024

Her warm, even tone and clear diction became associated indelibly with the composer’s amorous page in the way that Kirsten Flagstad was with Isolde and Feodor Chaliapin with Boris Godunov. —Adam Nossiter, New York Times, 24 Dec. 2023

But her careful, musical diction makes a case that this is really a novel about communication both within and beyond words. —Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times, 11 Dec. 2023

One senses that the actor has obsessively studied every TV appearance, every inch of documentary footage, to recreate Bernstein’s diction and manner, his haughty and rapid-fire way of speaking. —Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 22 Nov. 2023

The final scene between Henry and Jerry moves the story rapidly to a showdown, but key parts of the plot are swallowed in Hoffman’s diction, which seems pitched to a more casually realistic medium. —Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 23 Sep. 2023

Her diction is pristine, as is McKinny’s — and his warmly robust bass-baritone voice makes De Rocher’s humanity evident from the start. —Zachary Woolfe, New York Times, 27 Sep. 2023

Word History

Etymology

earlier, "word, phrase," going back to Middle English dicion "saying," borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French dictyoun "word," borrowed from Latin dictiōn-, dictiō "act of speaking, speech, (in grammar) word, expression, form," from dic-, variant stem of dīcere "to talk, speak, say, utter" + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of action nouns; dīcere going back to Indo-European *dei̯ḱ- "show, point out," whence also, with varying ablaut, Germanic *tīh-a- "point out" (whence Old English tēon "to accuse," Old Saxon aftīhan "to deny," Old High German zīhan "to accuse," Old Norse tjā, tēa "to show, report," Gothic gateihan "to announce, tell"), Greek deíknȳmi, deiknýnai "to show, point out," Sanskrit diśati "(s/he) shows, exhibits"

First Known Use

1581, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Kids Definition

diction

noun

dic·​tion ˈdik-shən 

1

: choice of words especially with regard to correctness, clearness, or effectiveness : wording

careless diction in the student's essay

2

: quality of vocal expression : enunciation

a good singer with excellent diction