0 past simple and past participle of dictate --
1 to give orders, or tell someone exactly what they must do, with total authority: --
[ + that ] I wanted to take a year off, but my financial situation dictated that I got a job.
The party's change of policy has been dictated by its need to win back younger voters.
[ + that ] The rules dictate that only running shoes must be worn on the track.
[ + question word ] He disagrees with the government dictating what children are taught in schools.
The UN will dictate the terms of troop withdrawal from the region.
2 to speak something aloud for a person or machine to record what is said, so that it can be written down: --
In general, their geographical location dictated the type of service offered.
These are dictated by the relationship of the current water level to the gong's target water level.
The sample was broken down into five age categories which were dictated by available data for the population at large.
However, the need for these rule types are primarily dictated by the restrictions that we have placed on the pointwise rule.
The norms of security dictated that these visits be conducted by more than one person.
But we do not expect judges' decisions on such matters to be strictly dictated.
The shape of the discussion is then dictated pragmatically.
We organize the empirical analysis around four categories of variables and use representative variables for each category as dictated by theory and data availability.
