DICTUM (dicta)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: dicta   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dictum mean? 

• DICTUM (noun)
  The noun DICTUM has 2 senses:

1. an authoritative declaration

2. an opinion voiced by a judge on a point of law not directly bearing on the case in question and therefore not binding

  Familiarity information: DICTUM used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DICTUM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An authoritative declaration

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

dictum; pronouncement; say-so

Hypernyms ("dictum" is a kind of...):

declaration (a statement that is emphatic and explicit (spoken or written))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dictum"):

directive (a pronouncement encouraging or banning some activity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An opinion voiced by a judge on a point of law not directly bearing on the case in question and therefore not binding

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

dictum; obiter dictum

Hypernyms ("dictum" is a kind of...):

judgement; judgment; legal opinion; opinion (the legal document stating the reasons for a judicial decision)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

 Context examples 

"To-day speak true one way, to-morrow speak true another way, which is to lie," was Zilla's dictum.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

There are old fops still lurking in the corners of Arthur’s or of White’s who can remember Tregellis’s dictum, that a cravat should be so stiffened that three parts of the length could be raised by one corner, and the painful schism which followed when Lord Alvanley and his school contended that a half was sufficient.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It freezes the water to prevent it running to the sea; it drives the sap out of the trees till they are frozen to their mighty hearts; and most ferociously and terribly of all does the Wild harry and crush into submission man—man who is the most restless of life, ever in revolt against the dictum that all movement must in the end come to the cessation of movement.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Amy Eshton, not hearing or not heeding this dictum, joined in with her soft, infantine tone: Louisa and I used to quiz our governess too; but she was such a good creature, she would bear anything: nothing put her out.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)