de dicto

English

Etymology

From Latin dē dictō (“of the word”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /deɪ ˈdɪktəʊ/

Adjective

Examples
On the de dicto reading of “Peter believes someone is out to get him”, ‘someone’ is unspecific and Peter suffers a general paranoia; he believes that it is true that a person is out to get him, but does not necessarily have any beliefs about who this person may be.

de dicto (not comparable)

1. (linguistics, philosophy) Taking the utterance in consideration, without having a particular referent in mind.

Antonyms

• de re

Related terms

• de se

Translations

linguistics, philosophy: as said