A statement delivered with authority; an order; a command; an authoritative rule, principle, or maxim; a prescription; as, listen to the dictates of your conscience; the dictates of the gospel.
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The act of dictating; the act or practice of prescribing; also that which is dictated.
One who dictates; one who prescribes rules and maxims authoritatively for the direction of others.
Pertaining or suited to a dictator; absolute.
Dictatorial.
The office, or the term of office, of a dictator; hence, absolute power.
Dogmatical; overbearing; dictatorial.
A woman who dictates or commands.
A dictatress.
Office of a dictator; dictatorship.
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.
A lexicographer.
A book containing the words of a language, arranged alphabetically, with explanations of their meanings; a lexicon; a vocabulary; a wordbook.
A telephonic instrument for office or other similar use, having a sound-magnifying device enabling the ordinary mouthpiece to be dispensed with. Much use has been made of it for overhearing, or for recording, conversations for the purpose of obtaining evidence for use in litigation.
any slime mold of the genus Dictostylium.
An authoritative statement; a dogmatic saying; an apothegm.
A plant with net-veined leaves, and monocotyledonous embryos, belonging to the class Dictyogen/, proposed by Lindley for the orders Dioscoreace/, Smilace/, Trilliace/, etc.
A compound of a binary type containing two cyanogen groups or radicals; -- called also bicyanide.
An order of worms parasitic in cephalopods. They are remarkable for the extreme simplicity of their structure. The embryo exists in two forms.
Like or belonging to the Dicyemata. One of the Dicyemata.
One of a group of extinct reptiles having the jaws armed with a horny beak, as in turtles, and in the genus Dicynodon, supporting also a pair of powerful tusks. Their remains are found in triassic strata of South Africa and India.
imp. of Do.
A treatise on teaching or education.
Fitted or intended to teach; conveying instruction; preceptive; instructive; teaching some moral lesson; as, didactic essays.
In a didactic manner.
The didactic method or system.
Aptitude for teaching.
The art or science of teaching.
An animal having only two digits.
Having only two digits; two-toed.
A kind of triangular spade.
See Dabchick.
Didascalic.
Didactic; preceptive.
To cheat or overreach.
A cheat.
The subclass of Mammalia which includes the marsupials. See Marsupialia.
Of or relating to the Didelphia. One of the Didelphia.
Having the uterus double; of or pertaining to the Didelphia.
A marsupial animal.
Didelphic.
Same as Didelphic.
Formerly, any marsupial; but the term is now restricted to an American genus which includes the opossums, of which there are many species. See Opossum. [Written also Didelphis.] See Illustration in Appendix.
Like or pertaining to the genus Didus, or the dodo.
A shrewd trick; an antic; a caper.
The curve which on a given surface and with a given perimeter contains the greatest area.
A two-drachma piece; an ancient Greek silver coin, worth nearly forty cents.
the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
Diduction; separation into distinct parts.
The act of drawing apart; separation.
See Didymium.
A rare metallic substance usually associated with the metal cerium; -- hence its name. It was formerly supposed to be an element, but has since been found to consist of two simpler elementary substances, neodymium and praseodymium. See Neodymium, and Praseodymium.
Growing in pairs or twins.
A Linn/an class of plants having four stamens disposed in pairs of unequal length.
Didynamous.
Of or pertaining to the Didynamia; containing four stamens disposed in pairs of unequal length.
A small cube, marked on its faces with spots from one to six, and used in playing games by being shaken in a box and thrown from it. See Dice.
See Di/cian, and Di/cious.
The same as Dihedral.
a genus of evergreen perennial herbs of tropical America with lush foliage and poisonous sap; often cultivated as houseplants.
A narrative or history; a recital or relation.
stubbornly and vigorously resisting in the face of seemingly hopeless odds; as, diehard opposition.
Any substance or medium that transmits the electric force by a process different from conduction, as in the phenomena of induction; a nonconductor, separating a body electrified by induction, from the electrifying body.
See Dicentra.
The interbrain or thalamencephalon; -- sometimes abbreviated to dien. See Thalamencephalon.
Same as Di/resis.
The separation or resolution of one syllable into two; -- the opposite of syn/resis.
small genus of low deciduous shrubs; the bush honeysuckles.
plural of diesis.
An engraver of dies for stamping coins, medals, etc.
The process of engraving dies.
A small interval, less than any in actual practice, but used in the mathematical calculation of intervals.
A stock to hold the dies used for cutting screws.
in a period of sexual inactivity; -- of animals that have several estrous cycles in one breeding season.
same as diestrus.
a state or interval of sexual inactivity or quiescence between periods of activity; -- of animals having several estrous cycles in one breeding season.
A legislative or administrative assembly in Germany, Poland, and some other countries of Europe; a deliberative convention; a council; as, the Diet of Worms, held in 1521. Any of various national or local assemblies; Occasionally, the Reichstag of the German Empire, Reichsrath of the Austrian Empire, the federal legislature of Switzerland, etc. The legislature of Denmark, Sweden, Japan, or Hungary. The state assembly or any of various local assemblies in the states of the German Empire, as the legislature (Landtag) of the kingdom of Prussia, and the Diet of the Circle (Kreistag) in its local government. The local legislature (Landtag) of an Austrian province. The federative assembly of the old Germanic Confederation (1815 -- 66). In the old German or Holy Roman Empire, the great formal assembly of counselors (the Imperial Diet or Reichstag) or a small, local, or informal assembly of a similar kind (the Court Diet, or Hoftag).
One who lives in accordance with prescribed rules for diet; a dieter.
A rule of diet; a fixed allowance of food, as in workhouse, prison, etc.
One who diets; one who prescribes, or who partakes of, food, according to hygienic rules.
Of or performance to diet, or to the rules for regulating the kind and quantity of food to be eaten.
In a dietetical manner.
That part of the medical or hygienic art which relates to diet or food; rules for diet.
A physician who applies the rules of dietetics to the cure of diseases.
A colorless, volatile, alkaline liquid, NH(C2H5)2, having a strong fishy odor resembling that of herring or sardines. Cf. Methylamine.
Dietetic.
Dietetic.
A subordinate or local assembly; a diet of inferior rank.
One skilled in dietetics.
Evil name; bad reputation; defamation.
A form of divorce, among the ancient Romans, in which a cake was used. See Confarreation.
To cause to be different or unlike; to set at variance.
To cause to differ; to make different; to mark as different; to distinguish.
Distinct; separate; not the same; other.
The formal or distinguishing part of the essence of a species, by which it is distinguished from other members of its genus; the characteristic attribute of a species; specific difference; as, a proper definition must have both genus and differentia.
possessing a differential coefficient or derivative; -- of a mathematical expression.
Relating to or indicating a difference; creating a difference; discriminating; special; as, differential characteristics; differential duties; a differential rate.
An increment, usually an indefinitely small one, which is given to a variable quantity.
In the way of differentiation.
To acquire a distinct and separate character.
made different (especially in the course of development) or shown to be different; as, the differentiated markings of butterflies; the regionally differentiated results. Opposite of undifferentiated.
The act of differentiating.
One who, or that which, differentiates.
In a different manner; variously.
In a differing or different manner.
Difficult; hard to manage; stubborn.
To make difficult.
To render difficult; to impede; to perplex.
To render difficult; to difficilitate.
With difficulty.
Difficulty.
The state of being difficult, or hard to do; hardness; arduousness; -- opposed to easiness or facility; as, the difficulty of a task or enterprise; a work of difficulty.
To be distrustful.
The state of being diffident; distrust; want of confidence; doubt of the power, ability, or disposition of others.
See Diffidence.
Wanting confidence in others; distrustful.
In a diffident manner.
To split.
To define.
Definitive; determinate; final.
Act of cleaving or splitting.
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