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Depict vs Dictate - What's the difference?

depict | dictate |

As verbs the difference between depict and dictate

is that depict is to render a representation of something, using words, sounds, images, or other means while dictate is to order, command, control.

As an adjective depict

is (obsolete) depicted.

As a noun dictate is

an order or command.

depict

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To render a representation of something, using words, sounds, images, or other means.
  • * 1984 , Lawrence Starr, "Toward a Reevaluation of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess," American Music , vol. 2, no. 2, p. 27,
  • The well-known words depict a woman seeking sanctuary in a love relationship form a brutal, rapacious man.
  • * 1987 , Niall O'Loughlin, "Music Reviews: 20th-century guitar," The Musical Times , vol. 128, no. 1734, p. 443,
  • Here the music depicts the delicate pattern of ice on windows.
  • * 1994 , E. Pennisi, "Breathe (xenon) deeply to see lungs clearly," Science News , vol. 146, no. 5, p. 70 (caption),
  • False-color computer images depict lungs removed from a mouse.

    Usage notes

    * The subjects of the verb include words, music and images.

    Synonyms

    * portray, supply, figure, express, exhibit, register, show, return, establish, shew, deliver, present, read, indicate, evidence, point, record, testify, fancy, picture, translate, visualize, usher, give, envision, turn in, designate, limn, show up, render, evince, provide, prove, image, yield, demonstrate, fork out, draw, visualise, generate, describe, interpret, project, submit

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Depicted.
  • (Lydgate)

    dictate

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An order or command.
  • I must obey the dictates of my conscience.

    Verb

    (dictat)
  • To order, command, control.
  • * 2001 , Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography , Cambridge University Press (ISBN 0-521-78512-X), page 409,
  • Trademark Owners will nevertheless try to dictate how their marks are to be represented, but dictionary publishers with spine can resist such pressure.
  • To speak in order for someone to write down the words.
  • She is dictating a letter to a stenographer.
    The French teacher dictated a passage from Victor Hugo.

    Derived terms

    * dictation * dictator