Word Meanings - DICTION - Book Publishers vocabulary database

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; as, the diction of Chaucer's poems. His

Additional info about word: DICTION

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; as, the diction of Chaucer's poems. His diction blazes up into a sudden explosion of prophetic grandeur. De Quincey. Syn. -- Diction, Style, Phraseology. Style relates both to language and thought; diction, to language only; phraseology, to the mechanical structure of sentences, or the mode in which they are phrased. The style of Burke was enriched with all the higher graces of composition; his diction was varied and copious; his phraseology, at times, was careless and cumbersome. "Diction is a general term applicable alike to a single sentence or a connected composition. Errors in grammar, false construction, a confused disposition of words, or an improper application of them, constitute bad diction; but the niceties, the elegancies, the peculiarities, and the beauties of composition, which mark the genius and talent of the writer, are what is comprehended under the name of style." Crabb. (more info) say; akin to dicare to proclaim, and to E. teach, token: cf. F. diction. See Teach, and cf. Benison, Dedicate, Index, Judge, Preach,

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of DICTION)

• Language
• Speech
• talk
• conversation
• dialect
• discourse
• tongue
• diction
• phraseology
• articulation
• accents
• vernacular
• expression

Related words: (words related to DICTION)

• SPEECHLESS
  1. Destitute or deprived of the faculty of speech. 2. Not speaking for a time; dumb; mute; silent. Speechless with wonder, and half dead with fear. Addison. -- Speech"less*ly, adv. -- Speech"less*ness, n.
• TONGUELET
  A little tongue.
• SPEECHIFYING
  The dinner and speechifying . . . at the opening of the annual season for the buckhounds. M. Arnold.
• TONGUE-SHELL
  Any species of Lingula.
• SPEECHFUL
  Full of speech or words; voluble; loquacious.
• VERNACULAR
  Belonging to the country of one's birth; one's own by birth or nature; native; indigenous; -- now used chiefly of language; as, English is our vernacular language. "A vernacular disease." Harvey. His skill the vernacular dialect of the
• DISCOURSE
  fr. discurrere, discursum, to run to and fro, to discourse; dis- + 1. The power of the mind to reason or infer by running, as it were, from one fact or reason to another, and deriving a conclusion; an exercise or act of this power; reasoning; range
• DICTION
  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; as, the diction of Chaucer's poems. His
• SPEECHIFY
  To make a speech; to harangue.
• TONGUESTER
  One who uses his tongue; a talker; a story-teller; a gossip. Step by step we rose to greatness; through the tonguesters we may fall. Tennyson.
• DISCOURSER
  1. One who discourse; a narrator; a speaker; an haranguer. In his conversation he was the most clear discourser. Milward. 2. The writer of a treatise or dissertation. Philologers and critical discoursers. Sir T. Browne.
• DIALECTAL
  Relating to a dialect; dialectical; as, a dialectical variant.
• TONGUED
  Having a tongue. Tongued like the night crow. Donne.
• TONGUE-TIED
  1. Destitute of the power of distinct articulation; having an impediment in the speech, esp. when caused by a short frænum. 2. Unable to speak freely, from whatever cause. Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity. Shak.
• SPEECHIFICATION
  The act of speechifying.
• TONGUE-PAD
  A great talker.
• TONGUE-SHAPED
  Shaped like a tongue; specifically , linear or oblong, and fleshy, blunt at the end, and convex beneath; as, a tongue-shaped leaf.
• EXPRESSIONAL
  Of, or relating to, expression; phraseological; also, vividly representing or suggesting an idea sentiment. Fized. Hall. Ruskin.
• EXPRESSIONLESS
  Destitute of expression.
• CONVERSATIONIST
  One who converses much, or who excels in conversation. Byron.
• OVERLANGUAGED
  Employing too many words; diffuse. Lowell.
• SERPENT-TONGUED
  Having a forked tongue, like a serpent.
• ABARTICULATION
  Articulation, usually that kind of articulation which admits of free motion in the joint; diarthrosis. Coxe.
• HONEY-TONGUED
  Sweet speaking; persuasive; seductive. Shak.
• SHRILL-TONGUED
  Having a shrill voice. "When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds." Shak.
• NONVERNACULAR
  Not vernacular. A nonvernacular expression. Sir W. Hamilton.
• ADDER'S-TONGUE
  A genus of ferns , whose seeds are produced on a spike resembling a serpent's tongue. The yellow dogtooth violet. Gray.
• LONG-TONGUE
  The wryneck.
• INARTICULATION
  Inarticulateness. Chesterfield.
• PLEASANT-TONGUED
  Of pleasing speech.
• TRUMPET-TONGUED
  Having a powerful, far-reaching voice or speech.
• CONTRADICTION
  1. An assertion of the contrary to what has been said or affirmed; denial of the truth of a statement or assertion; contrary declaration; gainsaying. His fair demands Shall be accomplished without contradiction. Shak. 2. Direct opposition