How to Use dictum in a Sentence

dictum

noun
  • No one lives more by the dictum of showing, not telling, than Wiseman.
    — Jake Coyle, Star Tribune, 1 Oct. 2020
  • Not that Wolfe’s dictum was totally off the mark.
    — David McGrath, Chicago Tribune, 22 Aug. 2025
  • Follow this simple dictum and the Post will defend you to the death.
    — Sadie Stein, Town & Country, 16 Jan. 2018
  • This is what Keats means by his famous dictum that axioms must be tested on the pulse.
    — Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 1 Jan. 2023
  • Yet the fast spread of covid-19 reveals that the world largely ignored that wise dictum.
    — The Economist, 10 June 2020
  • But today the dictum applies to Israel, as well.
    — Richard Haass, Foreign Affairs, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Hanging on the wall behind where Wiggins was seated on a stool was the class dictum.
    — Mará Rose Williams, kansascity.com, 15 May 2017
  • Because there’s a famous dictum that my acting teacher always taught me.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 26 Mar. 2021
  • Fast ten, slow twenty is a dictum that breeds recklessness in damn near every other aspect of our lives.
    — Mitchell S. Jackson, Harper's magazine, 10 Feb. 2019
  • That dictum applies beyond the theater.
    — Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 18 June 2026
  • However, this dictum does not require schools to open as some may not have the resources necessary.
    — Winston Gieseke, USA TODAY, 29 Oct. 2020
  • And while that's gospel for US users, there's some nuance to that dictum across the Atlantic.
    — Kate Cox, Ars Technica, 24 Sep. 2019
  • But due to card production and printing schedules, rookie cards were issued for months outside the scope of this dictum.
    — Michael Salfino, The Athletic, 19 Aug. 2024
  • That dictum especially applied to late-night drinks with friends and emails to family members.
    — Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 30 Mar. 2023
  • His dictum applies to any number of angling maneuvers, including the matter of adding a piece of worm to a wet fly.
    — Will Ryan, Field & Stream, 5 July 2023
  • And in general, are there standards of dress that supersede any costume party dictums?
    — Judith Martin, Washington Post, 14 Dec. 2019
  • This dictum—to honor and to applaud—brought me to Charleston this past December.
    — Latria Graham, Condé Nast Traveler, 30 May 2023
  • The cafeteria crowds would look familiar at any smartphone-era high school, and the dictum to wear pink on Wednesdays still plays.
    — Adrienne Wichard-Edds, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Dec. 2017
  • In what other condition would a judge or a lawyer or a social worker be giving someone a medical dictum?
    — Ivana Rihter, Vogue, 6 Mar. 2018
  • This straightforward Friedman dictum is certainly borne out by the data available to us over the past two years.
    — Edwin T. Burton, National Review, 8 Feb. 2022
  • Some might argue, even, that the religious dictum endorses the effort to fortify one's house.
    — Meghan O'Gieblyn, Wired, 7 Feb. 2022
  • The past, according to a famous American dictum, is never dead.
    — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 27 Jan. 2023
  • Smith co-wrote six of the 18 songs — his road schedule kept him from writing more, but, as the Nashville dictum goes, the best song always wins.
    — Melinda Newman, Billboard, 4 Oct. 2024
  • In this new world, leading firms were already implementing the converse of Taylor’s dictum.
    — Steve Denning, Forbes.com, 1 June 2026
  • This dictum was coined by the French philosopher René Descartes in demonstrating his existence.
    — Cyrus Hadavi, Forbes, 5 May 2021
  • Mr Selmayr abides by Oscar Wilde’s dictum that the only thing worse than being talked about is the opposite.
    — The Economist, 15 Mar. 2018
  • Contrary to Reagan’s famous dictum, government has been a major part of the solution.
    — Alan S. Blinder, WSJ, 21 Apr. 2021
  • One response is to look back at the Holocaust as in the past and invoke the Jewish dictum of zachor-zachor means to remember.
    — Patricia Dillon, Houston Chronicle, 23 Feb. 2018
  • The Taliban dictum reversed an announcement — demanded by and promised to donor countries — just days earlier that all schools for girls would be open.
    — Washington Post, 31 Mar. 2022
  • That dictum ran through Vanguard’s entire culture, from its threadbare offices to the low-cost funds offered to its delighted customers.
    — Philip Delves Broughton, WSJ, 17 Nov. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dictum.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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