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edict

UK/ˈiː.dɪkt/US/ˈiː.dɪkt/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #11,823 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: edicts

An edict is a command issued by somebody in authority. Issue an edict, by royal edict, an edict from above.

It is a single order rather than a law passed by anybody, which is why the word implies power without consultation. The Edict of Nantes granted French Protestants their rights in 1598, and its revocation drove them abroad.

Definitions of edict

  1. 1nounedictA command issued by somebody in authority.C1

    “The king issued an edict banning all public meetings.”

edict is a command.

Where it comes from

Latin edictum comes from edicere, to declare, from e- plus dicere, to say.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *deyḱ-

  2. Old French

    edit

  3. Latin

    edictum

  4. Middle English

    edycte

  5. English, today

    edict

From Middle English edycte, borrowed from Latin edictum; earlier form edit, from Old French edit, from the same Latin word.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

edict in the wild

  • In this edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity.

    Edict of Nantes

  • An edict is a decree or announcement of a law, often associated with monarchies, but it can be under any official authority.

    Edict

  • The version found in Lactantius is not in the form of an edict.

    Edict of Milan

  • The edicts describe in detail Ashoka's policy on dhamma, an earnest attempt to solve some of the problems that a complex society faced.

    Edicts of Ashoka

  • According to the edicts, the extent of his promotion of dhamma during this period reached as far as the Greeks in the Mediterranean region.

    Edicts of Ashoka

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.