Diction

Diction is simply your choice of words. There is no single, correct diction in the English language; rather, different words or phrases are used in different contexts, as in the following example:

To an employer

an oversight

To the police

an accident

To a child

a mistake

To a friend

a screw-up

All of these words mean the same thing—that is, they have the same denotation—but you would not use them interchangeably: a police officer or employer would interpret screw-up as an insult, while your friends at the bar after a hockey game would think oversight is pretentious.

The details

• Catchphrases - Next Page
• Connotation and Denotation
• Review: Diction