0 past simple and past participle of dictate
1 to give orders, or tell someone exactly what they must do, with total authority:
The UN will dictate the terms of troop withdrawal from the region.
[ + question word ] He disagrees with the government dictating what children are taught in schools.
[ + that ] The rules dictate that only running shoes must be worn on the track.
The party's change of policy has been dictated by its need to win back younger voters.
[ + that ] I wanted to take a year off, but my financial situation dictated that I got a job.
2 to speak something aloud for a person or machine to record what is said, so that it can be written down:
Many people feel they must do whatever their doctor dictates, and never question the advice they are given.
After dictating what is to be done, she then leaves her husband to do all the work!
When I went to the hairdresser, my mum just dictated how it was to be cut.
He shouldn't be allowed to dictate all the terms and conditions - it's supposed to be a democratic decision.
Transcription statistics (time between dictation and transcription) of the dictated cardiology notes were 8.2, 4.2, and 0.5, respectively.
The claim that what counts as following precedent is acting in the way dictated by the rationale is a substantive thesis.
The vast majority involved in that struggle believed that cosmic forces dictated the nature and degree of civic well-being.
Results across studies clearly substantiate the hypothesis that name writing improves more rapidly with age than the writing of dictated words.
