dictating
- 1Present participle and gerund of dictate.
He spent the morning dictating notes into a recorder for his secretary to type up.
Market forces are dictating the company's pricing decisions this quarter.
Note
The -ing form carries all three meanings of the verb: giving orders, speaking words for someone else to write down, and deciding an outcome. The final e of dictate drops before -ing. As a participle it follows be (she was dictating a letter). As a gerund it works as a noun (dictating takes practice). Only context tells the meanings apart, since a letter, a set of terms and a schedule can all be dictated.
dictating is a form of dictate
dictate, verb: To speak words aloud so that another person can write or type them down. Full entry
- Spelling
- dictate → dictating: drop the e, add -ing
Use it in a sentence
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