How to Use diction in a Sentence

diction

noun

• The student's essay was full of careless diction.
• The actor's diction was so poor I could hardly understand what he was saying.
• No one is better than Didion at using flatness of affect and formality of diction to convey seething anger and disdain.
  — New Yorker, 8 Oct. 2001
• Yes, the diction in the tweets is strange sometimes, but no more so than, say, Jeff Bezos’s sexts.
  — Dustin Kurtz, The New Republic, 16 Aug. 2019
• Maltman’s diction, though, lacked punch, and his voice thinned out on the lower end.
  — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 25 Sep. 2023
• The chorus, prepared by Donald Nally, had the best French diction of the night.
  — Heidi Waleson, WSJ, 3 Oct. 2017
• Val’s voice and diction would fit into a movie starring The Three Stooges, who grew up not far from here.
  — Steve Ditlea, SPIN, 11 Feb. 2022
• His manner is warm and inviting while his diction is clear and crisp.
  — Rochelle O'Gorman, latimes.com, 7 June 2018
• She was bullied for everything from her hat choice to her weight to her voice to her diction.
  — Molly Jong-Fas, Vogue, 3 Sep. 2021
• Their magic called on the forces of nature and the beauty of poetic diction.
  — Valerie Kivelson, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 June 2022
• Nat, a man in his mid-forties, has a diction that feels decidedly out of joint with his age and his era.
  — Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 26 Oct. 2019
• The cadence and diction perfect, gently pulling you along.
  — Ryan Kost, SFChronicle.com, 7 Feb. 2020
• Why was his manner of diction so much more gripping than the performers in the play proper?
  — Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2021
• Talk real clear, don’t want no friction with your diction.
  — Gary Gilson, Star Tribune, 15 Aug. 2020
• Her work is known for its metaphors from nature and straightforward diction.
  — Carole Goldberg, courant.com, 16 May 2018
• Back in her barrio, she’s deemed as an outsider because of her Anglo diction and ways.
  — Marc Silver, Washington Post, 9 June 2019
• No posh Manhattan private school diction for these guys, not on your life.
  — Mark Warren, Popular Mechanics, 23 Mar. 2017
• No posh Manhattan private school diction for these guys, not on your life.
  — Mark Warren, Popular Mechanics, 23 Mar. 2017
• Another thing was the importance stressed on simple, to-the-point diction.
  — High School Journalism Institute, oregonlive.com, 16 July 2019
• Police can yell really loud and their diction is quite clear.
  — Garrison Keillor, Twin Cities, 21 Apr. 2017
• The diction is matter-of-fact, the syntax conventional; the imagery is simple and bare-boned.
  — Donika Kelly, New York Times, 27 Jan. 2022
• Lazarus was very progressive in some ways as a poet, but her diction was old fashioned, and the first part of the sonnet deals with the history and values of the Old World.
  — Randy Dotinga, The Christian Science Monitor, 5 Aug. 2017
• Some of his best fight sentences sound as if Joe Rogan had fallen into a trance and assumed the diction and rhythms of Toni Morrison.
  — Giri Nathan, New York Times, 28 Apr. 2023
• The diction is simple, the writing artless; the world of the novel, told in a basic third-person voice, claustrophobic.
  — E. Tammy Kim, The New York Review of Books, 7 Mar. 2019
• Throughout, the syntax is punchy and slangy, while the diction often grows brazenly recondite.
  — Michael Dirda, Washington Post, 10 Nov. 2022
• His diction, once clear, sometimes sounds a little blurry.
  — Los Angeles Times, 21 Nov. 2021
• Voice mode placed an emphasis on the clear diction and voice of each player's robotic advisor.
  — Sian Babish, chicagotribune.com, 22 Sep. 2020
• His spiky, unresolved style found a perfect foil in the serenity and poise of Lee’s singing and in her precise, sensuous diction.
  — Adam Shatz, The New York Review of Books, 11 June 2020
• But diction was mushy — this in German, a language of forward vowels and crisp consonants.
  — Scott Cantrell, Dallas News, 9 June 2023
• The solo singers were superb — clear in their diction, accurate in pitch, and melding smoothly in the ensembles.
  — Jeremy Yudkin, BostonGlobe.com, 17 July 2023

Last Updated: 27 Jun 2024