Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Choice and use of words in speech or writing.
- noun Degree of clarity and distinctness of pronunciation in speech or singing; enunciation.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Expression of ideas by words; manner of saying; choice or selection of words; style.
- noun A word.
- noun Synonyms Diction, Phraseology, Style. Diction refers chiefly to the choice of words in any utterance or composition. Phraseology refers more to the manner of combining the words into phrases, clauses, and sentences: as, legal phraseology; but it also necessarily involves diction to some extent. Style covers both and more, referring not only to the words and the manner in which they are combined, but to everything that relates to the form in which thought is expressed, including peculiarities more or less personal to the writer or speaker.
- noun Dialect, Idiom, etc. See
language .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Choice of words for the expression of ideas; the construction, disposition, and application of words in discourse, with regard to clearness, accuracy, variety, etc.; mode of expression; language.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The effectiveness and degree of clarity of word choice, and presentation of said words.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the articulation of speech regarded from the point of view of its intelligibility to the audience
- noun the manner in which something is expressed in words
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Shit, now my diction is all off b/c I in no way intend to equate you or anyone with blogtards.
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Is this about intellect or insane skills in diction?
Current Movie Reviews, Independent Movies - Film Threat 2009
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Maybe he's too cute, maybe his diction is too good, maybe he doesn't have enough tough-sounding consonants in his name.
Update frankwu 2008
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Poetic language and elevated diction is an obstacle to understanding for "ordinary" people, Wordsworth seems to be saying.
Aelfric vs. Wordsworth Prof. de Breeze 2008
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Poetic language and elevated diction is an obstacle to understanding for "ordinary" people, Wordsworth seems to be saying.
Archive 2008-02-01 Prof. de Breeze 2008
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I think it's the sort of piece where if the diction is really energetically articulated, it carries a lot of the musical line with it, and the mezzo's diction was particularly clear.
Magna Carter (3): The stuff that dreams are made of Matthew Guerrieri 2008
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The diction is simple and crisp, the details are acute, as metaphors slowly assemble, cloud-like, creating a melancholic atmosphere.
Hello vast emptiness, : Jeffrey McDaniel : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation 2007
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Hence, although emotion is the overriding topic, paradoxically it is not immediacy but diffuseness in diction, syntax, and argument that has manifested itself as the overriding style.
“The Cure of Poetry in an Age of Prose” : Ange Mlinko : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation 2007
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The classically trained singers that I've heard inevitably sound less than spontaneous, to be charitable, and their diction is invariably too "correct" and too lots of other things that I don't want to hear.
Salvati dunque e scolpati Matthew Guerrieri 2007
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All forms of English are more or less mutually intelligible, with some important variations in diction and vocabulary.
milosrdenstvi commented on the word diction
"If I hadn't in elegant diction
Indulged in an innocent fiction
Which is not in the same category
As telling a regular terrible story."
August 20, 2008