Diction is the art of enunciating with clarity, or speaking in such a way that each word is clearly heard. It is concerned with pronunciation, enunciation, and choice of words to be used. It can also be defined as poet's distinctive choices in vocabulary.

Diction's concerns with word choice are multiple. Register, or whether words belong to a formal or informal social context, is a large part of it. Analysis of diction in literature reveals much about how a passage establishes tone and characterization. For example, a preponderance of verbs related to physical movement in a story suggests a character who is active while a preponderance of verbs related to states of mind helps to portray a character's introspection. The word dictionary is derived from this definition of the word.

Etymology

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1542, from Late Latin dictionem, from Latin "a saying, expression, word," from dic-, stem of dicere "speak, tell, say," related to dicare "proclaim, dedicate," from Proto-Indo-European base deik- "to point out."

See also

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• Orthoepeia
• Elocution
• Register (linguistics)

Phonetics | Poetry

Dizione | Дикция